[split] Names, pronouns, articles... and gender

[redchild]

Yup!
Also, I wonder if there's any language that assigns genders to nouns that would make cat male and dog female? I'm guessing not. Weird isn't it.

You could use specified names for male cats and female dogs: toms and bitches.

Name LAWS? Whoa! I wonder if we have any laws about naming children? I am sure we don't have laws about specific names for males and females. That's really interesting........ I guess it puts a whole new perspective on what sort of assumptions could be made about a society where there are no gender specific pronouns?

And here I was thinking of naming my prospective daughter and son Dick and Susie, respectively

I suppose it would be interesting to find out the statistics of names given to babies born within the past decade to see whether there is any change between parents choosing gender-specific names or androgynous/unisex ones. If there is a rise in the usage of unisex ones, what sort of implications would that tell us? Or perhaps if there is a rise in gender-specific ones? Or little change at all?