The name a person goes by seems to be a perennial topic for me, and I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's an existential thing. Who are we? Who am I? Who are you? A lot of how we see ourselves resides in what we call ourselves.
Here in France, there is a different naming culture and naming tradition than in other parts of the world. In the 19th century, Napoleonic law dictated that children born in France could only be named from a list of 20 or so names he personally chose--most of them religious--and spelled "correctly" by a priest or other notary public. This had been common in Europe since the middle ages, but Napoleon was among the first European rulers to mandate the practice into law. To differentiate, people gave their children multiple first names. This is why the French are so keen on hyphenated names to this day. Claude-André, Anne-Mireille, and the classic Jean-Pierre, to name a few...
One thing I've noticed is that, since I have my list of students' names before I get to meet the actual students, there is a gender difference between the United States and France. There is also a heavy Italian and North African influence in this area.
Here are some common boy's names I thought were girl's:
Andrea
Alexis
Camille
Jules-Antoine
Maxime
Morgan
Yanisse
And some common girl's names I thought were boy's:
Dorine
Laurence
Marion
Patrice
Sandy
Siwar
Valentine
I'll get the hang of it some day soon. Maybe by the end of the year.
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