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9:57am May 23, 2014

patternsmaybe:

youneedacat:

  1. nectaresque said: When I first read your name on your other blog I liked it because Mel sounded to me like it can be both female or male (but I’m not a native English speaker)…

Yes that’s one reason I’ve gone by it off and on for quite a long time, because it doesn’t actually signify a gender either way in English.  My friend persuaded me to use Amelia, though, as the actual legal name, because she thinks I deal with so much prejudice already in too many other areas (including looking gender-ambiguous in various ways already), that having a gender-ambiguous legal name could be life-threatening.  She told me some scenarios where that could be the case, and I agreed, so we compromised that my name will be Amelia legally, but that I’ll go by Mel everywhere anyway.

My aunt is called Mel. I never knew it was a boy’s name ever.

Mel Brooks, Mel Tillis, Mel Gibson, Mel Blanc, etc.  Short for names like Melvin, Melford, Melton, Melbourne, or Melville.  But also sometimes a stand-alone.