Blowing & Drifting

Saturday, after the Great First Birthday Extravaganza, Julia was taking her bath and musing aloud about the various people who'd attended. In particular, she was interested in the fact that some people seemed to have names that either "a boy or a girl" could have, whereas others had names only a boy or a girl could have. Our married friends Kris and Kristi were right on the border between the two groups, but their "baby Anna" was firmly in the second group. "Can a boy be named 'Julia'?" she asked? "No," I said, "but a boy might be named 'Julius.'" She looked up at me for a second, thinking. "What about 'Genevieve'? Can a boy be named 'Genevivius'?" I was disappointed to tell her that no, in fact, he couldn't. At least not in our social stratum.