Irish Translation Forum

Patsy is mostly a mans name in Ireland but a womans in the US.

fiairefeadha wrote:Patsy is mostly a mans name in Ireland but a womans in the US.

Same thing with "Christy."

The problem is (at least here...it may be different in Ireland) is that once a name is associated with women, men who have the same name come in for a lot of heat, and eventually people stop giving that name to their boy children. There are a few truly "unisex" names, most of which are actually nicknames ("Pat," "Chris," "Toni/Tony," etc.) but in general, once people start using traditional male names for girls in any number, those names quickly get shuffled off the "acceptable" list for boys.

Several names that were considered male names when I was a child (and which most parents now avoid for their male children) are "Ashley," "Courtney," "Whitney," "Sydney/Sidney" and "Tracy." Other names that sound like certain feminine names have taken a dive as well...it's unusual today to see a "Marion" or "Francis" in the U.S. because the names sound like "Marian" and "Frances."

Redwolf

Francis is still holding its own here but often changed to Francie, Frank, Fran

For all of you wondering...Leslie is a Scottish surname. I should know, being that is my clan and all. The story that I have been told is that Leslie came from the Gaelic words for "holly garden" which are Líos and cuilinn. Together it becomes Líoschulainn or some form of that. I'm sure its spelling may have changed over time and also depended on who may have written it down. In the Ragman Roll it is spelled Leschelyn and in other sources it is Lesslyn which assists the validity of the holly garden theory. Being that the documents they are written in are written in Latin, these spellings just may be a rough Latin spelling of how the scribe heard them. You can spell Leslie phonetically as Leslaidh (Scottish Gaelic) or something near to that. So if you wish, being that you want an Irish version try for Leaslai or something like that. Hope this cleared up any question of the origin of the name.After all, there are 2 towns in Scotland named Leslie which are clan lands.

I don't think there's anyone wondering here anymore. This thread is going on 2 years old.