[angcat]

Don't forget Dakota, Harley (after the bike) for a girl. Horrible indeed. My daughter has a male classmate named Shannon. I thought that was a girls name?

[Xenalyte]

Xena's auxiliary baby-name rules forbid names taken from:

- flowers
- months
- seasons
- jewels
- Indian tribes
- states
- motor vehicles

[RockinRight]

Shannon is a SURNAME and a place name in Ireland. It became a first name in the US first for boys, then girls, IIRC.

Many names evolve from being boys' names to girls' names, but not usually the other way around.

Examples:

Stacy/Stacey
Tracy
Courtney
Kim (well, Kim as a girl's name is short for Kimberly, and is a man's name by itself, but anyone called "Kim" was generally a male before 1950)
Shannon
Dana

More recent examples:

Devin/Devon
Taylor

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I thought that was a girls name?

Nope---just Irish. I grew up with a guy named Shannon, and he was the toughest mf'er in town.

[Hatteras]

I'm in my mid forties and I grew up with two guys named Shannon. They were born in '59 and '61.

[GraniteStateConservative]

My brother's name is Shannon. But, it was because of this retarded pact that my parents made with their friends to use their last name as a first name and for them to do the same (both last names are legit first names, so it wasn't as reckless as it could have been). He has gone by his middle name since about the age of 11.