Lincoln.. For a girl...

Barbercharm

When will the madness end?! Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard named their daughter Lincoln?? (sorry if I'm late to that game). But really.. We need to stop giving our daughters famous men's last names.. (Swayze might be the worst that I've seen tossed around lately). Instead of giving our daughters boy names to try to make it seem like they are strong and powerful and can do anything a boy can do, how about we just empower them as we raise them to be strong, independent women with beautiful girl names?

RedPeppah

They did? Ugh! Horrible.

bsinno

None of that crossed my mind when I named my daughter!

but yes. Swayze is horrid. no body puts baby swayze in the corner.

wickedZ

eeek!

diamondduck13

Just clicking love to OP wasn't enough, I have to add LOVE in a comment box too!

Scarlett&Gatsby

Barbercharm said:

When will the madness end?! Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard named their daughter Lincoln?? (sorry if I'm late to that game). But really.. We need to stop giving our daughters famous men's last names.. (Swayze might be the worst that I've seen tossed around lately). Instead of giving our daughters boy names to try to make it seem like they are strong and powerful and can do anything a boy can do, how about we just empower them as we raise them to be strong, independent women with beautiful girl names?

While I think this is true, I'm not sure that's why people give boys' names to girls.

In the case of Kristin Bell and Dax Shepard, my assumption is that they want to use the name Lincoln because of an admiration for Abraham Lincoln. By giving it to a daughter, they're trying to say that a girl is just as worthy of honoring the man as a boy is.

It's still a totally awful name for a girl and makes me cringe, but I assume that's where their heads were at. Either that, or they just wanted to out AW Jessica Simpson.

When I like a boys' name on a girl, it's simply that. I like the way it sounds on a girl. It's not about trying to make a girl masculine. For a while, certain lines of feminism thought women had to beat men at "their own game." That line of feminism is dead. We're over it. It's done. Now more than ever, we're about empowering women to be women. It's all about choices. Being a stay at home mom is just as valid as being a businesswoman. Et al.

(I have a theory that this is reflected in naming; the rise of Mackenzie and Madison, eventually toppled by the reign of the feminissima names, Isabella, Ava, Olivia.)

We're living in a postmodern world. It's all about choices and perception. While there was certainly a time when the goal of androgynous naming was to stifle sexism on resumes, I honestly believe most people today choose boys' names on girls because the sound appeals to them. Because they think it "sounds" feminine. Nothing more.

That said, you can't really be shocked by names "going girl." There have been "change-over" names for hundreds of years. This isn't a trend. It's been going on for a very long time. How else did Ashley, Kelsey, Sydney and Evelyn become girls' names?

But seriously, Lincoln sucks as a girls' name. Big time.

le bebe xo

Barbercharm said:

When will the madness end?! Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard named their daughter Lincoln?? (sorry if I'm late to that game). But really.. We need to stop giving our daughters famous men's last names.. (Swayze might be the worst that I've seen tossed around lately). Instead of giving our daughters boy names to try to make it seem like they are strong and powerful and can do anything a boy can do, how about we just empower them as we raise them to be strong, independent women with beautiful girl names?

I think that gives a name too much weight. IMO, it is the parents job to enstill strength and independence in their daughter, be her name Betty Sue or Butch.
Ditto PP, names of all kinds these days largely seem to be chosen by sound and meaning vs feminism or lack-thereof.
Fwiw, I don't like Lincoln for a girl.