A Boy Named...Allison?

[Jennifer]

Check out our Guest Author Article, written by my friend Allison (guy).

He talks about what it's like growing up with a "girl's" name and then having a son himself.

http://babynames.com/features/guestauthor.php

[Fog-struck]

Great article! It makes me think Vivian isn't completely unusable.

[Antje]

Great article! Ditto Laurel on Vivian, and also Sidney.

And here in Brazil, I've met many Allisons, all men. Most people don't know a lot of English, but they do know what "son" means, so every -son name is masculine for us. I've mentioned the Madison/Addison/Emerson/etc (not the first two, but Emerson is moderatly popular, and was very popular maybe 20 years ago) on girls' trend in the US to many people who literally laughed out loud because they can't imagine how come a name that ends in -son, especially for English-speaking people, could be a girls' name!

[MelissaJane]

Oh, Anna, that is so interesting about -son names being exclusively masculine in Brazil.

[Anna]

Love that article...and it just confirms what I have thought and felt all along...any name with -son at the end is a boys name, even Allison which I totally see as a boys name because of the nickname "Al" but in saying that I can see how giving it to a boy would create problems...There are many names out there that were originally boys names and are now seen as exculsively girls names and to give a boy that name despite it's history and origins would just be asking for trouble...Names like Hilary, Shirley, Allison, Evelyn, Jocelyn, etc

[BashfulBean]

I love the article! Good for him for continuing the tradition! :)

[snow]

That was a fun and interesting read! :thup: to Allison!

[brokentv]

Thanks for sharing!

[SummerRain]

Very cool article!

[Mirth]

Lovely article.

However, the author is wrong about Allison 'becoming' a girl's name since it always was - it was in existence as a girls name 500 years before the United States :)

The male name comes from the use of the surname Al(l)ison, which means 'son of Alice', whiich, as the author says, had some low level vogue in the US in the early 20th century (look at Namipedia for a nice demonstration of what he says in the article).

But Al(l)ison, in 99% of its recorded usage as a name in English speaking countries, is a girls name, a diminutive form of Alice in its medieval spelling Alis (or Allis if you prefer) - Alis-on, like Mary-on - Marion.

So there is no 'son' in the female name - but it's easy to see how that could be confusing for people unaware of the name's origins.

[ckevans]

Great article, though the SSA figures show more girls than boys with that spelling in the USA since 1946 at least. Peyton Place did give the name a noticeable bounce for girls, but it didn't start the use of that spelling for them.

According to the surname dictionaries I have, there are multiple possible origins for Allison as an English surname. Though it sometimes goes back to "Alice's son", it can also be derived from male names like Alan.