A fan of traditional language conventions, I believe a name ending in 'a' should always be a girl's name. Similarly, when a name ends in 'o', it should pronounce a boy's name. So in the birthing notices the other day, I was horrified to see the name 'Tevita' used for a boy. Luckily there was massive lettering to announce "It's a boy!", or I would have just assumed it was a girl...
Curious at the thought of calling a boy Tevita, I decided to Google the name. Wikipedia showed there is a famous (male) Tongan rugby player named Tevita Vaikona. Perhaps the parents of the newborn boy were paying the ultimate tribute to their favourite sports star!
Still unsatisfied, I typed Tevita into the search engine on nameberry.com. Aha! This website stated Tevita is a female name and another version of 'Taffy' (a Welsh name meaning candy).
So what can be learned from all this? Choosing a name ending in 'a', (or anything else traditionally used for girls) for a boy may not be a wise idea. Unless the poor child's gender is written next to his name, everyone is going to think he is a girl! While it may sound like a good idea to name your son after your favourite sports star, remember it's YOUR SON who has to live with his name, not you.
Maybe Tevito would have been a better option...
Love,
The Name Dame
The Name Dame
No comments:
Post a Comment