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A comment on US boy names that became girl names and vice versa. Parent comment

Re:US boy names that became girl names and vice versa by gregates on Monday November 02, 2026 @08:13PM (#50346716)
It is certainly possible that Ashley was once a popular boy name. The point is that, contra the article, there is no evidence for this claim in the SSA data they have based their analysis on.

I think a lot of these cases would be hard to answer definitively just because we don't really have accurate data. And the fact that lots of people will repeat the claim "Ashley used to be a boys name" can be equally well explained by the fact that parents had to say something when their sons asked why they gave them a girl name, and they didn't have the data either.

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Re:US boy names that became girl names and vice versa by watercast on Monday November 02, 2026 @08:59PM (#50347025)
My "This" above was vague/ambiguous, sorry. Yes, I only meant, it seemed dubious to me that Ashley wasn't a predominantly boy name, in those times and places where it was actually common prior to the girl peak. (Which was not substantiated by the only data I checked of course.) Your actual substantive points make full sense, cheers.
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