Neither masculine nor feminine: more and more babies are annotated with genderless names

Penelope Canonico

08/29/2020 - 15:13

• Clarín.com
• Society

No gender, neutral, unisex. Novel and unrelated to any kind of label. In this evolution and opening of expressions, the fashion of registering newborns with names that can refer to people of different sexes and building their own cultural tradition gains ground . Many parents choose this alternative. Is it a growing trend?

Between May and July 2020, 1,467 births were registered in the city of Buenos Aires and in all of 2019 there were about 3,725, as reported by the Buenos Aires Ministry of Government, in charge of the Civil Registry and the Capacity of People. Some of the most repeated were Alex (derived from Alejandro or Alejandra), Noa or Noah, Miel, Andes and Mats. The statistics also reflected the use of unpublished names such as Hephaestus, Shakty, Zia, Yui or Kou.

“Names have a long tradition and are chosen for different reasons . It is important to determine what was the motivation and what reading parents make of identity when choosing them. The search can be by etymology, in people interested in a certain concept and with access to know it ”, reflects Santiago Kalinowski, linguist and lexicographer, director of the Department of Linguistic and Philological Research of the Argentine Academy of Letters.

More and more people are encouraged to explore a sexuality that is not binary or always identified with the gender that was assigned to them at birth. A part of feminism believes that identity is inexorably linked to biology. Another, which is constructed socioculturally , that is, the subject has the right to develop sex-generically as he wishes.

"If the daughter wants to change gender or prefers not to have one marked by the traditional heteronormative model, she can do so without having to change her name before the State, " says Joaquín Linne, associate researcher at Conicet and Professor at UBA-UNLa. It also suggests that parents choose to name their children that saves them paperwork, trauma, and legal and social conflicts, should they decide on a different orientation .

The use of the language depends on the speakers. "Names mean things because people link them to values ​​that they consider desirable for men or women, depending on the social role they occupy," says Kalinowski. For example, Melibea is associated with sweetness and that is why it was traditionally taken as a feminine name. However, the specialist warns that interesting cultural shifts can be generated that relate sweetness to the male sphere.

“There is nothing in the gender of the term that predetermines its use as masculine or feminine. Dolores is a masculine word applied to women ”, insists Kalinowski. The name law is no longer restrictive. Mats is common in English, but in Spanish it is novel.

Is that the phenomenon is too recent in time to know how it will evolve. “The way the assignment unfolds and the use of the name itself will define with which of the two sexes it will end up identifying. If Miel is chosen to call 10 girls and one boy, it will transform into a feminine name; although an intermediate scenario may also arise ”, analyzes Kalinowski.

Rio's versatility

Rio, in an updated photo. The baby was born in May 2019.

Río was born in the Maternity of Moreno Estela de Carlotto on May 31, 2019. The delivery was natural and lasted five hours. "I had him squatting down, hanging from a kind of cloth," his mother, Bárbara Burga, tells Clarín .

“The name seemed original to me. It was installed two years ago when I heard it passing by, in a conversation between friends. When I got pregnant, it was imposed on me like a crush, ”recalls Bárbara who works in a civil association of feminist psychologists who address the gender perspective. 

What motivations did the parents have in choosing a name without gender in which they found breadth, diverse expressions, from the beginning? “What is not named does not exist, we feminists say. Rio has positive associations with a type of landform or environmental features such as the fortress. It is versatile and relates to pleasant things. In particular, it reminds me of the river of Córdoba, crossed by the experience of enjoyment. Ultimately, Rio may be what you choose. For now, his identity is that of a male ”, explains his mother.

The temperance of the Andes

A photo of the little hands of the Andes, newborn.

The parents of Andes Bustamante, Agustina and Martín, agree that the baby chose his name from the moment it was gestated . “First, what to call it came up. Then, the associations arrived and we inquired about the meaning that can be applied to both women and men ”, they detail.

Andes was born on January 31, 2020. Associated with temperance, Martín explains that his love for the mountains and nature was a determining point when imagining it. “In Quechua it means mountain that lights up. The name refers to the mountain range of South America; it harbors an idea of ​​union that attracted us ”, he concludes.

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