My mom was under the influence, of Hollywood, when she named my sister and I. Our names came from movies that she saw while pregnant with us.
When mom was pregnant with me, she saw “The Yearling”. She really liked the name of the little boy in the film. His name was Jody. Mom dropped the “y” and put an “i” – so my name is Jodi. I knew I had a cross-gender name, but to find out I was actually named after a boy character in a movie, I was irked about this.
This was totally unfair! I wanted mom to take it back and name me a girl’s name, but she would not do it. “Be glad you have a unique name,” she told me. “The world has way too many Mary’s, Karen’s and Cathy’s.” I could not argue with that.
Four years later, my sister got the pretty and feminine name. The movie mom saw was “Gone with the Wind”. Her name is Melanie. It was bad enough to have a boys name without dealing with a younger sister having a girl’s name. I was extremely irked about this discrimination.
Mom, why the hell didn’t you name her ‘Rhett’?
Jodi Lea's Place 