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In Scotland there's a strong tradition of giving the mother's (or a grandmother's) maiden name in the middle name spot, both for male and female children. I know many people, men and women, with middle names like Gardiner, Galbraith, McKay, Urquhart ... And these are people with clearly feminine first names. I'm so used to that, it wouldn't even occur to me that the mn Carlisle was strangely masculine - or that any surname in the mn spot was (unless it happened to be a common boy's name such as Bradley), or part of a modern trend.

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It helps that I don't know any men named Carlisle, and it's rather a pretty sounding name, what with the "ar" and "l" sounds.

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ETA: I just looked at the BtN entry for Carlisle. Here, with regard to the surname and the placename, we stress the second syllable - car-LYLE. That makes it sound considerably more feminine too, I think.

This message was edited 3/13/2008, 9:38 AM