adele

[Robert J. Hansen]

> Stacy Keach is a famous male, and the only male I have heard of with
> that first name, which is usually used for a female and spelled -ey or
> -ie.

Stacy Andrews, used to be an offensive lineman for the Cincinnati
Bengals.  Stacy Peralta, an actor from one of my all-time favorite
movies (_Real Genius_).  Stacy Compton, owner of Turn One Racing and a
former highly-ranked race driver.

I agree it's a rare name, but it's not unheard-of.

> Except it is another with gender-variant spellings, this time usually
> -ey for a female and -ie for a male where I come from (ignoring the
> modern trend to invent your own spellings, which is a different
> story).

In the U.S., it's almost always Leslie.  The only Lesley I've ever met
was an Australian.

> Isn't Jean usually female in English-speaking countries and male in
> French-speaking countries?

Yep.

> A lot of people call their car "she" as well. Never understood that.

	Delilah was a woman fine and fair
	With pleasant looks and her coal-black hair
	Delilah gained old Samson's mind
	When first he saw the woman that looked so fine
	...
	Samson's mother replied to him
	"Can't you find a woman of your kind and kin?
	Samson, will you please your mother's mind?"
	Still he go'd and married that Philistine.
	...
	Samson's trick, though, they never found out
	Till they began to wonder about
	Till his wife sat upon his knee
	"Tell me where your strength lie, if you please?"
	Samson's wife she talked so fair
	Told his wife to cut off his hair
	"Shave my head clean as your hand
	And I become a natural man!"

		-- "If I Had My Way", by Willie Johnson [*]

I drive a charcoal-black Mustang GT, and much like the Biblical Delilah,
oh brother, does she ever tempt me into doing things I know I shouldn't.
 The name makes *exquisite* sense to me...



[*] The song's probably older than that, but Blind Willie Johnson had
the first recording of it in 1927.  In the '70s it became a staple of
Grateful Dead concerts, and then Springsteen started to include it in
his concerts.  Recently, Shirley Manson made a heavy metal version of it
that's musically excellent, but it's theologically incoherent -- it does
no justice to the story of Samson and Delilah.

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