1785: Appropriated Girl's Names Nov 3, 2019

So-called gender neutral given-names may be becoming more popular, but insofar as most were still initially from one or another sex, this is nothing new. In the US for instance, 'Robin' is now more common as a girl's name, but comes from 'Robert'. That demographic change only happened in the 1990's (and only in the US) but other names have been appropriated by women, including 'Ariel'—Hebrew for 'Lion of G-d'—in the Ango-sphere despite the traditional feminine form 'Arielle', and even 'Clair'. 'Clair', particularly without the '-e' is the modern form of the given name 'Clara' associated with the Irish County Clare. There are many others apart from this, so leave a comment if you know one.