Our dog answers to Goofus more than Sparky....
Ok I don't understand. Males are males, females are females (so far I understand), but I thought gender-neutral was if another name was needed or it wasn't determined for sure on male/female.
The gender is never determined for sure. There is always some doubt. But regardless of the amount of doubt, DEC always assigns a gender. So in your scenario, a gender-neutral name would never be used because DEC would never say they are not sure of the gender.
If a male would be Mercury, why would a female go by the gender-neutral name and not the female name that came out on top? I realize Genesee was second by total votes, but why use a name designated at gender-neutral if it didn't have to be? It just doesn't seem right.
These are the rules that have been used for years.
When name suggestions are solicited, we give everyone a chance to submit a name. Rather than limiting the choices to gender-neutral names because the gender of the eyases are not known at that time, we allow people the option of submitting a pair of gender-specific names.
A fair poll is created for each of the three "gender" classes where the most popular name in each class is chosen. At this point, there have to be some objective criteria that only one name can meet. The first criterion is receiving the most votes, or in the case of a tie, receiving the most nominations (and in the case of a second tie, winning a coin toss). The second criterion is to be appropriate for the gender of the eyas. The name that meets these two criteria is the name that is given to the eyas. Genesee meets both criteria for a female eyas. Mercury meets both criteria for a male eyas.
Last year, Rosetta meet both criteria for a female eyas. The year before, Orion met both criteria for a male eyas.
