This is interesting Eve because I thought Denis & Denise would be roughly equal in use; my reference says its male. My reference also list the name (Denise (French) and the Latin as you say) separately as the female of Dionysius, but it then states that Lyford 1655 gives DENIS as a girl's name!!! Yet a another example of just how much names can change over the years! Cheers Roy -----Original Message----- From: eve@varneys.org.uk [mailto:eve@varneys.org.uk] Sent: 07 February 2009 12:19 To: Roy Cox Subject: Re: [OEL] Given name DENNY > It is a variation of Denis or in Latin it is "Dionysius"- Dennis was far more often used as a female name thasn a male one until the C19 (an exception being the Hampson gentry family_. Its Latin form is Dionysia, but Dennis is the standard form. In Ireland, the name was also used more commonly for males than females. But then, in Ireland, 'Florence' was a male name first and foremost, rather than female.