While Charlie wasn’t specifically named after jazz great Charlie Parker, we’ve always liked that his name had a connection to jazz music.  So when it came time to think of a girl name for baby bee #2, we looked to female jazz musicians.  Mr. Bee’s front runner was Ella (Fitzgerald) because he just really loves that name, but I immediately vetoed it for being too common.  Then I suggested Billie (Holiday) or Nina (Simone), and now Billie is Mr. Bee’s #2 choice.  Nina is a pretty name, but still a little too common for me.  I do like Billie because it’s a feminine version of Billy, and it also sounds good with Charlie.  But I really wanted to come up with something more unique, so for now it’s all still very much up in the air.

This whole discussion got me to thinking about boys’ names for girls.  There are boy names that are predominantly associated with boys, boy names that have become gender neutral, and historical boy names that have now become predominantly girl names.  I thought it’d be interesting to look into some of the names that fall into this trend, because though Charlie is still a name that’s largely associated with a boy, it’s also becoming more popular as a girls’ name too!

Here’s our list of boys’ names for girls as inspired by celebrities (real or fictional):


What do you think about boys’ names for girls?