Johnny Cash sang of the fighting and misery that came from being christened A Boy Named Sue, but Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for International Development, is able to laugh about being christened with a sexually ambiguous moniker, saying: “When I met my Norwegian opposite number, Hilde Frafjord Johnson, she said: ‘Ah Hilary, I see the British Government has failed to find another woman, but at least they found a man with a woman’s name.”

In fact, men with gender-neutral names are a rarity when compared with women. Around a quarter of females have adopted unisex diminutive names, such as Chris, Sandy or Alex, or been christened with cross-sex names, such as Charlie, that are conventionally male, according to a Sussex University study. Men’s names are popular with Hollywood’s leading ladies, too, such as Reese Witherspoon, Tatum O’Neal, and Cameron Diaz.

Funny then, that women with male-sounding names don’t rank highly in the good impression stakes. When psychologists at Bishop’s University, Quebec, asked 24 male and female students to form an opinion of people based on the transcriptions of messages left on an answering machine, women with masculine or gender-neutral first names were considered less ethical, caring or cheerful, as well as less feminine than ones with female names.

Similarly, University of California, Los Angeles researchers report in the journal Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, that women with laddish names are considered less ethically caring than those with feminine names. But then again, they are rated as being more fun.

And here lies the key. Researchers from the School of Cognitive and Computing Science at Sussex University believe that many women are keen to get away from “girly” names in a world where women can wear the trousers — and the kick-ass boots. They told the British Psychological Society: “Women like their names significantly less than men. One reason for this may be women dislike the stereotypes of femininity which they associate with it.” By shortening their names, the researchers explained, “women are choosing gender-ambiguous names”. Their study listed the most popular modern girls’ unisex names as Lee, Robyn, Terry, Ashley, Leslie, Francis, Vivien, Kelly, Jessie and Kim.

Men, however, are keen to ensure that their names sound masculine and avoid shortening them if it makes them gender-ambiguous. The researchers concluded: “As women exhibit a more dramatic shift in their sex-roles than men, it’s not surprising there are no boys named Sue, but there are girls called George, Cecil and Jack.”

Nevertheless, as Hilary Benn shows, having a gender-ambiguous name is no bar to male success. The Olympic gold medal-winning athlete Lynn Davies, and the former captain of Derbyshire Cricket Club, Kim Barnett, would be sure to agree wholeheartedly.

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