Te^n ho. trong tie^'ng Anh

[Tuan V Nguyen <t.nguyen@garvan.unsw.edu.au>]

Hello ba'c TRAN CONG ICH & friends,

	DDe^? to^i tra? lo+`i ba'c ca^u ho?i sau dda^y nhe':

>Could anybody tell me how to know it is a man or a woman by his/her name(by
>First name and by Last name). E.g when you reply a letter from a stranger
>what should you write: Dear Mr. or dear Madam? I always feel difficulty to
>decide. In Russian names, it seems to be easy and there is a common rule,
>in general. E.g: Tatiana, Natasha, Olga...are exactly a girl's names ;
>Victor, Oleg, Colia...are exactly boy's names. Zaitsev is a man's family
>but Zaitseva is a woman. Is there any rule in others, especially in
>American or Western names?. I've asked my English teacher about it but he
>doesn't know.

1.	In Western countries, notably, those with English 
language, there are also fairly clear distinction. Of course, 
you can not tell a person's gender by looking at his/her 
surname, but I still list some common surnames for you to 
memorise (if possible :-)):

	Smith, Jones, Johnston(e), Keating, Fraser, Whitlam, 
	*Howard, *Harrison, *Clinton, *Stewart, Andrews,
	Hawke,	Baylink, Riggs, *Lincoln, *Henry, Recker, 
	Levine, *Adams, 
	White, Whyte, Black, Brown, Green, Red, Genant, 
	Henderson, Anderson, Gibson, Johnson, Nixon, etc.

	(Those with * can sometimes appear as a first names)

2.	However, you can tell a person's gender by his/her 
first name. Here are some common first names for MALES (not 
any particular order):

	John, Charles, Conrad, Nigel, Donald (Don), James (Jim)
	William (Bill), Larry, Gibert, Leonard, Richard,
	Ronald (Ron), Harry (Henry), Brian, Robert (Bob), 
	Paul, Alan, Ernest, Arthur, Thomas, David, Joseph,
	Mark, Matthew, Kenneth (Ken), Ralph, Gregory (Greg),
	Malcolm, etc


and here are some common first names for FEMALES (not any 
particular order):

	Ann, Anne, Deborah (Debbie), Joan, Joanne, 
	Elizabeth (Lisa), Rosslyn (Roslyn), Rosemary, 
	Karen, Hillary, Sylvia, Margaret, Annabelle, 
	Louis, Helen, Susan, Linda, Diane (Dianna),
	Katherine (Kathy, Kathrine), Julie, Judy (Judith),
        etc
	
	
There are some male names which have corresponding female 
names such as:

	MALE			FEMALE

	Alexander              Alexandra
	Dennis                 Denis
	Francis                Frances
	Daniel                 Daniela
	Edward                 Edwina
	Philip or Phillip      Philippa
	Christopher            Christine
	Stephen, Steven	       Stephanie
	Peter                  Pete
	Jack                   Jackie, Jacqueline
	Laurence (Lawrence)    Laura
	Michael                Michel
	Gabriel                Gabrielle
	Andrew, Andy           Andrea
	George                 Georgina
	Norman                 Norma
	Frederick (Fred)       Freda
	Leonard (Len)          Leonarda
        
	
	As you can see from the above list, female names tend 
to end with "e" or "a", which is pretty similar to those of 
Russian and Polish names (as I used to know). However, there 
are also names which are exclusively for males or females as 
I listed above.

	OK, by now, you should be able to tell whether a person 
is a man or a woman with high probability. I say 
"probability" because these days there are people who do not 
want to identify themselves either male or female. You know 
who I am talking about :)

	You can even tell a woman's or man's rough age by 
looking at their first names. However, this is another topic 
which I may touch later.


>BTW, by style of letter writing one can know it is from a man or woman. Can
>anyone share about it?

	Yeah, you can but with much uncertainty. A man normally 
goes straight to the matter whereas a woman tends to go 
around for a while before talking the real thing. A man's 
writing is more forceful and somestime rude, whereas a 
woman's writing is soft and polite. Grammatically, men are 
poorer than women, etc. Again, I say these are only rules of 
thumb, they are subject to random errors. You have to apply 
your sixth or seventh sense to judge.

	Tuan


>
>However, sometime confusion by name is funny too.
>
>> >Ba'c A'ng na`o cha'n tha^.t, sao la.i go.i to^i la` anh. Cha(?ng nhe~
>chi? co' 
>> >anh mo+'i dduoc va`o Forum na`y tho^i sao. hay co' ye^u tinh ra^u xanh
>na`o 
>> >cha(.n co^?ng...
>> 
>>         To^i nghi~ cha('c Thu.c Anh hie^?u la^`m ba'c A'ng 
>> ro^`i. Ba'c a^'y referred to "Anh" la` te^n, kho^ng la` title 
>> dda^u. Te^n "Thu.c Anh" thi` dde.p tuye^.t ro^`i. Hi`nh nhu+ 
>> co' ca^u "thu.c nu+~ anh hu`ng" trong tie^'ng VN mi`nh ... 
>> va` ca^u na`y ddu'ng vo+'i Thu.c Anh la('m!
>
>Thanks and good luck
>TCI
>
>