There are 18 comments yet. Don't be shy.

1. On May 29th, 2005 at 4:37 am, Joël said :

No, you’re right. You always told me you liked to read “about” pages, hmm?
But… What’s the problem with it?

2. On May 29th, 2005 at 4:48 am, Rob Mientjes said :

Dude, are you serious? Always read an about page. Oh, and Veerle is female.

3. On May 29th, 2005 at 10:08 am, Remi said :

I’ve read the about page, but I wasn’t sure. Oh, and Rob, I knew Veerle is female ;)

4. On May 29th, 2005 at 10:19 am, Remi said :

And BTW, Joël, there’s no problem with it. It was just a fact.

5. On May 29th, 2005 at 3:46 pm, Joe said :

Haha. How long have you been reading his blog and thought he was a she? :P

6. On May 29th, 2005 at 6:33 pm, Remi said :

I don’t know… a whole year? :\

P.S. - BTW, here in Quebec, Anne is a very common name for a girl :)

7. On May 29th, 2005 at 10:23 pm, markku said :

I was just as surprised when I learned about that. I’m used to visualizing people named Anne as sweet girls, like my girlfriend with the same name. ;)

8. On May 29th, 2005 at 10:40 pm, Remi said :

Same thing for me. Apart from the fact that I don’t have a girlfriend named Anne ;)

9. On May 30th, 2005 at 3:52 am, Frenzie said :

P.S. - BTW, here in Quebec, Anne is a very common name for a girl :)

Just for the record, over here Anne is a common name for girls as well and only in Friesland Anne is a common boysname, which inspired his parents as I recall his about page says…

10. On May 30th, 2005 at 4:02 am, Timon said :

In fact, I know more male then female named Anne. (4 to 1)
And yes I am (also) Dutch. So what I was trying to say: Anne is also a common male name.

11. On May 30th, 2005 at 4:09 am, Egor Kloos said :

I too know more male Anne’s that female ones. Not for the lack of trying mind you. I wonder if this could effect Anne’s webstats? ;)

12. On May 30th, 2005 at 5:55 am, Faruk Ateş said :

In the Netherlands, Anne is also a (Frysian) male name, and it’s quite common. In the rest of the world, however, I’ve only ever heard of it being a female name. So yep, us Dutchies are “weird once again” ;-)

Note that we also have Anne as a female name here in the NL.

13. On May 30th, 2005 at 9:12 am, Randy Charles Morin said :

I made the incorrect assumption he was a she a year or so ago. One of my most embarassing blogosphere moments.

14. On May 30th, 2005 at 9:33 am, david said :

Is the male “Anne” the Dutch version of “Arnold”?

15. On May 30th, 2005 at 9:58 am, David Naylor said :

This was a very enlightening blogpost. I had no idea… :-)

It’ll probably take a while though before I stop thinking of Anne as female… Hmm. I liked it that way :-( ;-)

16. On May 30th, 2005 at 10:32 am, Faruk Ateş said :

@david: No, the male “Anne” is simply Anne, it’s just that in the Frysian dialect / region they’ve made it be a male name, too.

Why exactly, I’m not sure. Mind you, long-term Christian habit is (or, was?) that men were given a first name that was typically male, but second and third (or even fourth) names that were female. “Peter Maria Christina somethingsomething” as a man’s name was very common, for example.
Perhaps this practice has influenced things, but, keep in mind that I am in no way an expert about this, I’m only going by the knowledge I’ve attained by chance. :)

17. On May 30th, 2005 at 11:35 am, Remi said :

I wrote this because some months ago, I thought Molly said something like: “In the web standards blogoshpere and community, there are only two women, Anne and I.”

That’s why I thought “he” was a “she”.

Edit: I find the real quote: Where are the women in CSS. And she clearly says that Anne is a male. I misread it. Sorry.

18. On May 31st, 2005 at 1:33 pm, ACJ said :

Quite right.