Woman with sister named Kevyn reveals clever reason their mother gave them ‘boy names’
A common tactic for naming baby girls is to sometimes use a gender-neutral name, such as Bailey, or to completely lean into a gender-bended name such as James.
One woman, named Taylor, turned to TikTok to explain why her mother took the route of naming her and her sister names that were stereotypically reserved for boys. The video was a stitch of another creator’s video who was making fun of the “boy names for girls” trend. “Only when you name your baby Gary, then I will believe that you like boy names for girls,” the creator said before Taylor chimed in.
“So my mom really wins this one,” she began. She explained that her mother specifically wanted to give her daughters boy names so they could be taken seriously in a work setting. The idea was that people would see an email from James, for example, and assume a man had written it and wouldn’t dismiss whatever was said.
“But my name, Taylor, is not really that groundbreaking,” she explained, clarifying that she doesn’t really get mistaken for a man often. “It was actually the most common baby name of my year.”
However, her sister’s name is Kevin, specifically spelled Kevyn. “The best part about it was that growing up, when I would meet a little boy named Kevin, I would be like, ‘Ha ha you have a girl’s name.’”
“I couldn’t picture my sister being named anything else. So just name your baby whatever you want,” her video ended.
“The y makes it a girls name for sure,” Taylor joked in the video caption.
After posting on TikTok, she went on to receive more than two million views with many people turning to the comments section giving their various opinions on the name Kevyn for a girl.
“I think I’d have to go no contact with my mum if she named me Kevyn,” one comment read.
“KEVYN?!!! Oh your mom is wild lololol,” another commenter agreed.
Some people in the comments had the name Kevyn themselves and were so excited to find out about other people who shared their name.
“My name is Kevyn, and I literally have never heard of any other girls with the same name! I love it,” one commenter explained.
Taylor was so shocked about the amount of “girl Kevins” who appeared in her comments that she made a separate video just to acknowledge them. “My entire life I’ve never met another girl Kevin.”
She even admitted some of the repercussions of her sister having that name. “My sister even had a teacher for one whole year in elementary school that called her Mr Robbins,” she said before adding that once the men in her sister’s workplace find out that she’s a woman, they suddenly become less nice.
Another commenter related because her daughter is named Tyler. “Named my daughter Tyler – came home in 1st grade and told me she met a boy with a girl’s name…Tyler. Lol,” they wrote.
“For years I thought Stacy, Tracy, and Shannon were boy names because I have three uncles with these names,” a commenter chimed in, explaining that the concept works both ways.
