What makes a name masculine or feminine?

Names like Elliot (God is my Lord), and Shelby (From the town of Hollows), and many many other names have meanings that don't have to be used on only one sex, so besides social conventional thinking, why can't you use names like Elliot on a boy or a girl? Shelby used to be considered a masculine name, and now people would look down on you for naming your son Shelby, but what makes people see names as for boys of girls? Is it only because of what others say about the name?What makes a name masculine or feminine?
I think a lot of it has to do with social standards and how names look.



Kayla looks feminine, whereas Kevin doesn't.
I think mostly it has to do with the social acceptance, or what others are saying about the name. I like the name Elliot for a girl as well as for a boy. Kevin was originally conceived as a girl's name, blue was originally a girl's colour. I believe as time passed on our need for originality grew and we started adding y's and a's and e's to male names to give them a more feminine flair and that ending sound caught on. Now we have socially accepted unisex names with the onset of tomboy-girls, names like Danny can go for both a boy or a girl.

Now, sadly our need for originality is making us branch out into misspellings of names like Ayslize instead of Alice. It's sad, really. I'll be happy when we can go back to the Avas and Henrys and Williams.What makes a name masculine or feminine?
Things like this really have the biggest part due to social conventional thinking. It's just like anything else. It all goes on what the 'normal' thing is. Really, I think that people who look down on you for naming your kid a certain way can shove it. It's not there child. Just like with the raising, do what you think is right. Not what's normal or popular. What's popular is not always right. (which really is all normal is, what's popular.) .. But Shakespeare always wins this one. With this quote that Juliet says, "What's in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet;" ... :)What makes a name masculine or feminine?
I think its whether or not they have letters like "y" and "i"... Most girls like to "decorate" those letters with hearts for dots or huge lops on the "y" making the name appear more girly because of all the designs girls add to their names.



Now, the name Ashley is accompanied by a huge loop at the "y" so it looks feminine because usually guys don't add to the letters...
I'd say it's history, and original usage, determine it's gender. I don't believe there's such a thing as "unisex" names: boy's names are for boys, girl's names are for girls, regardless of populariy increase.
Good question. I suppose it is just the history of the name. Latin roots as well...most names ending in O are boys, most ending in A are girls, and then many of them got Americanized or altered, like Antonio to Anthony, etc.
Society's Perception of what is masculine or feminine is what.
I think it just depends on what common practice is. We think of Ashley as a girls name, but 100+ years ago it was a man's name.
elliot can be a girls name dont you watch the show scrubs! elliot is my fave =D
I often wonder the same thing. But I do think that social convention is a huge part of it.