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On a boy, I ADORE Ryan. I think it's been used enough, it could almost edge on classic. I've known a handful of Ryan's in my life and all of them have had very strong personalities- some shy, some bold, some creative, some athletic, etc, but all very founded in who they were.

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I like the appeal of Ryan.
It's strong without being macho and it's tender without being sissy.
I like the -an ending on a lot of names and this one has that bonus.
It's simple to pronounce, spell, and remember.
I can see this one easily finding its way into the classics category in a few decades right next to Alex and Peter.

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However, I think the opposite for Ryan on a girl.
On a girl, I see Ryan as trendy and tasteless.
It certainly dates a girl to a certain time when parents thought they were being "edgy" or "kool" to use stereotypical boy names on girls and in a number of years Ryan on a girl will sound like an older person's name (much like Patsy or Sandra does to our ears today).

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Also, for the spelling Ryann, I put the accent on the second syllable and therefore it does not sounds the same as Ryan. I have nothing against the name Ryann, but I thought you may want to know that it is often pronounced differently than Ryan is pronounced.

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Side note: The boy in the first picture in my signature is named Ryan (George Ryan Ross, actually, but he goes by Ryan.) and I am crazy about that kid. He's a singer/songwriter.

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Also, for most of my life, my best friend was my cousin whose name is Michael Ryan and who also goes by Ryan.

This message was edited 7/7/2012, 2:02 AM