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Help[Opinions] Re: Gillian on a boy?
in reply to a message by Frollein Gladys
No, I've never seen Gillian as a man's first name. I haven't heard it pronounced with a hard G either.
However, my own name book also lists Gillean (hard G) as a masculine Gaelic name meaning "servant of St John" and lists Gillian (masculine, hard G) as a variant of it. It says Gillean is rare and almost exclusive to Scotland.
So either it's the same book, or the same original source?
Anyway, where I live it is certainly not a unisex name. Gillian is Jillian and feminine, and using a hard G is a naive error. The hard G isn't wrong - the word gill has one, after all. But that's not the convention I know for Gillian.
I think a man named Gillian prn. Ghillian would not be like a boy named Sue. He'd be like a boy named Meredith prn meREDith.
- mirfak
However, my own name book also lists Gillean (hard G) as a masculine Gaelic name meaning "servant of St John" and lists Gillian (masculine, hard G) as a variant of it. It says Gillean is rare and almost exclusive to Scotland.
So either it's the same book, or the same original source?
Anyway, where I live it is certainly not a unisex name. Gillian is Jillian and feminine, and using a hard G is a naive error. The hard G isn't wrong - the word gill has one, after all. But that's not the convention I know for Gillian.
I think a man named Gillian prn. Ghillian would not be like a boy named Sue. He'd be like a boy named Meredith prn meREDith.
- mirfak
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So either it's the same book, or the same original source?
The book where I got this information is called "Duden. Lexikon der Vornamen", a German name book. They do mention that Gillean/male-Gillian means "servant of St John", but omit that it's rare and more of a Scottish name (and, at this point, probably a rather historic one at that) than one that is easily recognized in the entire English-speaking world (as opposed to girl-Gillian, which has its own entry).
All they say is that, in a German-speaking context, Gillian is a borrowing from the English name pool ;)
That's also what had me confused. Gillian and Jillian on a girl are two names that are not exactly common here (although Jill, and sometimes Jil, seems to be getting sort of "trendy", at least it's been cropping up quite frequently in BAs in the past few years), but they aren't unheard of either. Male-Gillian on the other hand...
The book where I got this information is called "Duden. Lexikon der Vornamen", a German name book. They do mention that Gillean/male-Gillian means "servant of St John", but omit that it's rare and more of a Scottish name (and, at this point, probably a rather historic one at that) than one that is easily recognized in the entire English-speaking world (as opposed to girl-Gillian, which has its own entry).
All they say is that, in a German-speaking context, Gillian is a borrowing from the English name pool ;)
That's also what had me confused. Gillian and Jillian on a girl are two names that are not exactly common here (although Jill, and sometimes Jil, seems to be getting sort of "trendy", at least it's been cropping up quite frequently in BAs in the past few years), but they aren't unheard of either. Male-Gillian on the other hand...
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