Naming Addison

I spend a lot of time naming and, often enough, renaming my characters. Why do I do this?

Because I'm delaying productive work? No! (At least, not entirely!)

In my first novel, Princess Izzy and the E Street Shuffle, every major character in the book changes their name at some point in their life. It illustrated their desperate efforts to control their public image. Their name was their first line of defense in that regard.

Addison McGhee, the name character in Cover Girl Confidential, also has a name change. She was born Ada Sinmac Ghee but a busy bureaucrat heard it wrong and made her Irish when she immigrated to the US as a child.

The fact that Addison is -- or at least was -- a boy's name only adds to her problems.

When I picked the name Addison, I had never heard it used for girl. My neighbor was a male Addison and I thought of it being one of those old-fashioned names that was bound to make a comeback. I figured it was a natural to be picked up by girls eventually because it is so similar to Madison. Still, I thought I was definitely ahead of the curve.

Not so much. There's a female Addison in my son's preschool class and when I met a young male Addison this week, his mother quietly confided that she was worried that she had accidentally given him a girl's name.

Well, I hope not.

I'm not being judgmental. As a former girl, I know the appeal of boyish names. If I were naming myself, I would surely give myself something feminine that lends itself to a boyish nickname. Amelia, nicknamed Mel, perhaps.

But as the mother of boys, it does bug me when every off-the-beaten track boys name gets snatched up from girls -- Ashley, Lesley, Kelly, Madison, Sydney. I've recently met female Finns and Aidens. The list seems endless! Come on, leave the boys something!