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Help[Opinions] Re: Gale
in reply to a message by Ismene
I haven't read "The Hunger Games" and I don't plan to, as it's a genre in which I have no interest, so maybe as a non-fan I'll be off-base here, but I'll go ahead and state my opinion anyway. I really feel that Gale, Gail, and Gayle are too established as girls' names to make Gale viable for a boy.
There was the actor Gale Gordon, Lucille Ball's sidekick. He was named Charles at birth so evidently he chose the name Gale at some point. Nevertheless, he did so many years ago, since he was born in 1906 and is now dead, and perhaps Gale was not so firmly entrenched as a female name then, and celebrities can get away with things name-wise that ordinary people can't, anyway.
My high-school gym teacher was named Gail and there was a Gayle in my elementary school class, and both were female, so I really can't think of it as a male name. Anyway, no matter how much I liked the sound of it, I really wouldn't want to give it to a son---I'd be afraid he'd hear "You have a girls' name" pretty often. I'm not saying there'd be TEASING, but just the simple statement about having a girls' name.
It's not a hard-and-fast rule that use of an uncommon name in a popular book will lead to an increase in its use among the general population, so it's not like you can depend upon that happening.
As far liking it, I don't like it for either a girl or a boy.
There was the actor Gale Gordon, Lucille Ball's sidekick. He was named Charles at birth so evidently he chose the name Gale at some point. Nevertheless, he did so many years ago, since he was born in 1906 and is now dead, and perhaps Gale was not so firmly entrenched as a female name then, and celebrities can get away with things name-wise that ordinary people can't, anyway.
My high-school gym teacher was named Gail and there was a Gayle in my elementary school class, and both were female, so I really can't think of it as a male name. Anyway, no matter how much I liked the sound of it, I really wouldn't want to give it to a son---I'd be afraid he'd hear "You have a girls' name" pretty often. I'm not saying there'd be TEASING, but just the simple statement about having a girls' name.
It's not a hard-and-fast rule that use of an uncommon name in a popular book will lead to an increase in its use among the general population, so it's not like you can depend upon that happening.
As far liking it, I don't like it for either a girl or a boy.
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