Is the surname "Thomas" appropriate for a girl?

Question

Just wondering peoples views on gender specific names.

Answer 1

Surname's don't really affect much. I can't see why the surname Thomas isn't appropriate, as soon as you said it I said to myself "Rebecca Thomas". Sounds completely normal.

Answer 2

no it is not appropriate for a girl

Answer 3

you can name a girl howevr you feel is appropriate.

One thing to consider though, is the misconception that goes with a name. Girl's name that is confused with a boy's name will cause annoyance in adult life, and a lot of trouble during school years. Why set additional diffuclties to a person.

Life is hard as it is.

Edit:

Surname unlike First name, is a part of the family history - and usually is not changed until marriage.

So the quesiton of appropriatness is not really the issue

if followed by a female say: Thomas, Joanne - will create some ambiguity but is not as bad as naming a girl

Thomas, John

Answer 4

Hey d....I think you're confused.  A surname is a family's last name...as in Mary Thomas!  

I once knew a Thomas Thomas...now that's interesting?

Answer 5

A surname is a last name- like Smith or Nguyen or Hernandez. Usually it stems from long tradition in a given family and in most western cultures it's passed down from parents to children, usually from father to children, although some cultures and some families do hyphenated last names (Mothersfamilyname-Fathersfamilyname) and traditionally in some cultures (Scandinavia, for example) names were constructed using the father's first name plus son (hence all the Swedish Johnsons and Svensons- John Erikson would be the son of Erik, and would have a son named something Johnson). This is called a patronymic. At some point in most places they stopped this practice, and simply used the most recent patronymic as a family name forever (this is why there are many women with names that end in -son, even though they aren't anybody's son).

Any surname is appropriate for a member of the family with that surname. So if you're an adult named Bob Thomas or Sue Thomas or whatever, Thomas would be an appropriate surname for your child, boy or girl. For example, Jane Thomas or Jason Thomas.

If it's not your surname, then it's still possible to make it your child's surname, but it is unusual, may require extra paperwork depending on where you live, and will definitely require lots of explanation over the course of you and your child's lives.

Answer 6

?? A "surname" is a last name or a family name, not a given name.

So it would be perfectly appropriate to name a girl, lets say, "Jane Thomas" if her parent or parents' last name is Thomas.  We do that all the time.

Now if you're talking about giving a girl the name "Thomas" as a first or given or "Christian" name, it seems to me that you'd only be making things harder for her when she grows up.  IF you're dead set on naming her "Thomas", why not use that as a middle name, and have her first name be something unambiguously female -- like Mary Thomas [Last Name] or Elizabeth Thomas [Last Name]?