Was Joyce a male name at one time?

I just saw an account with a man, 40-ish, named Joyce. (He goes by a more boyish name) was this common at one time?

Was Joyce a male name at one time?
Yes. In fact, like Ashley and Avery, it was once exclusively used for boys.
Reply:Yes,because it was a last name originally.


Women used to give sons their maiden name as a first name to carry their name in some way.


There are many names given today that were once last names(Ashley,Taylor,Madison,Jackson(any name with -son at the end) etc.)
Reply:OMG well actually i do not know, but i just saw this question at the top because it waz most recently asked, but the coincidence is, Joyce is my sister's name! lol
Reply:I don't think so... Poor guy
Reply:mmmm i don't think so, but i may wrong.
Reply:Joyce is still a man's name though it's not used much anymore. You might recall that there was a male poet named Joyce Kilmer.
Reply:Yes, it did use to be a man's name. A man named Sgt. Joyce Kilmer (born in 1886) once wrote a famous poem called "Trees."





http://www.bartleby.com/104/119.html





Now Joyce is my mother's name!
Reply:Yes it was. About 75-100 years ago.
Reply:I just googled it (nothing to do at work, slow day). It looks like it was more used in the early 1900s, but never really popular as a boy's name. Not completely unheard of though.
Reply:Jocelyn was once a male name, I'm not sure about Joyce
Reply:yup and so was taylor, kelly, anne, ashley kimberly lindsey and so many others that today if you ask anyone, it is a girls name, only a girls name and never was nor never will be a boys name lol

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