Are most names sexist?
A long time ago I read something about how a person’s name gives that individual a cue of who they shall become. Yesterday, this article came up on my Facebook feed: 21 Beautiful Baby Girl Names With Classic Latin Roots. The article contains very pretty names with sweet meanings. Most of the name’s were very traditionally feminine, with meanings like: beloved (Cara), truth (Vera), youth (Gillian), happy (Felicity), and pleasantness (Graciela). And hey, those are good qualities in a person.
But as I kept reading the name list, I started feeling annoyed. I realized that while all the names were very nice and sweet and I have dear friends with some of these names, they were all a bit outdated. The list made me feel that it is no wonder we are still struggling to find equal ground for women. We keep imposing and re-enforcing these passive roles on our girls. We keep naming our daughters sweet names like these and then we go and name most boys names with meanings like: mountain strength (Aaron), father of many nations (Abraham), valiant protector (William), king-like (Ryan), great fighter (Cayden), or stuff like that.
It is no wonder we (Women) are struggling today with feelings about what and who we are expected to be: mothers, patient, young, beautiful, and selfless. How about we give our daughters names that have to do a lot less to do with their looks or how pleasant they are/can be and more with the strong person they could grow up to be.
Because, you know , sometimes the King is a woman.