is there a reason given
for the two daughters to have boy names -- Alex and Scottie. Please don't tell me AlexandrA is a girl's name; Alex is most typically a boy's name
shareActually Alexandra is a girls name. Alexander tends to be a boys name.
shareAlexandra is a girls name
He asked you not to tell him that!
The original post isn't the clearest one I've read, but I think he was saying that he knows Alexandra is a girls' name, but doesn't believe that "Alex" is used as a nickname for it.
It is. There are lots of girls called "Alex."
It could be short for Alexis also.
SOME MORE ELABORATION:
"Scottie" is definitely not a common girls' name. I think the prior poster is right that she's presumably named after her grandfather, who's a character in the movie.
<i>Why</I> the author chose to have her named (a) after her grandfather and (b) with what's typically not a female name is kind of murky. Perhaps it's clearer in the book. All I can think of is:
- Scottie is a weird character, so a weird name kind of fits.
- Both Scottie and the grandfather are prone to inappropriate statements and behavior ... maybe the mother was too?
- It suggests an intention or hope that she would be a boy. That's not particularly strange, especially when the family already had on older daughter. It can create odd tensions that affect kids, though.
- Interesting that - having chosen to name her after a living male ancestor - they didn't use her father's name. "Mattie" or "Maddy" is a reasonably female name (though more often short for Madeline, I think). Also, it's not like the King-family part of her ancestry is exactly unimportant. Perhaps that suggests some weird family dynamics at play, which is consistent with the grandfather's behavior and some of what we know about the comatose wife.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald's daughter was called Scottie (full name: Frances Scott Fitzgerald, one letter different from her father). That's not exactly a reason, but maybe it's supposed to be some sort of homage to Fitzgerald or something.
I tend to think that the author didn't intentionally gave both daughters boys' names for some reason. There are enough girl Alexs that it seems pretty close to a unisex name to me - like Pat or Chris.
FWIW "Alexandra" was the 28th most popular girls' name in the US in 1993 and 1994, which would be about the time the character in the movie was born. That's pretty common. And I suspect a large percentage of them don't go by the full four syllables of their names. Alexis was actually a bit more popular, at 28th and 18th. There's a considerably smaller number of girls who are just named flat-out "Alex" - it peaked at the right historical time (1995, actually), but only at #539. share