A masculine family cognomen

A few days ago we read that Emily was the number 1 name in the United States and we were reminded of celebrities who shared the name, our own Emily Brontë among them

It's all about names these days apparently. There's an article today about originally male names gone female such as... yes! you guessed right - Shirley. Charlotte opened a can of worms:

Taylor, Sydney, Riley, Bailey and Cameron are a few modern examples, but Evans said the practice dates back more than 150 years when "Shirley" crossed the gender wall. You think he jests? Nope.
The title character of "Shirley," a lesser-known 1848 Charlotte Bronte novel, was so named because, "her parents, who had wished to have a son ... bestowed on her the same masculine family cognomen they would have bestowed on a boy, if with a boy they had been blessed."

After reading this, and briefly looking over this blog, would you say the Brontës are mushy? Some people do. Hmph!

Categories: Shirley, In_the_News