Namen und Geschlechter

Katharina Leibring

Swedish teenagers’ attitudes on unisex and gender-crossing first names

In many countries, most first names are gender-coded, i.e. from the name it is possible to ascertain the gender of the bearer, as these names are regularly given to one sex only (Alford 1988:66). This coding may be culturally determined through learned patterns, or achieved by linguistic or semantic differences in name form and content (Nübling 2015a:130f.). In several European countries, such as Finland and Poland, it is even required by law that a person’s forename should reveal the bearer’s sex (NLU 2013:57, 83). In Germany, since 2008, some unisex names have been accepted (Nübling 2015a). In other countries, however, not least Britain and the United ...