Can Carol Be A Male Name?

So as I was watching the new Where The Wild Things Are HD clips, I noticed the main monster was named Carol. I’m pretty sure the monster’s a guy, so that prompted me to wonder if Carol can be a guy’s name also. When I was playing Tales of Vesperia, the little brat was named Karol, which also got me wondering.

After discussing with Ungsunghero, I arrived at this Wikipedia page: Carl (name). Apparently there’s a whole slew of names that derive off of Carl (i.e. Charles). Apparently Carol is a male name in Romanian and a female name in English. Karol is a male name in Polish/Slovak.

Ungsunghero then brought up the question why Peg is short for Margaret. This was the first time I heard of that and asked if Peg Bundy’s real name is Margaret. Apparently her mom calls her Margaret. I countered with if it’s really that much off compared to Dick == Richard. Looking up in Wikipedia, there’s a whole slew of diminutive form for Margaret (i.e. Maggie, Madge, Marge, Meg, Megan, Rita, Daisy, Greta, Gretchen, Magee, Marg, Meggie and Peggy).

When I showed this to Ungsunghero, Daisy being in that list blew his mind. After searching a bit, I found this page: Why is Peggy the nickname for Margaret? In it, it explains how Daisy came about:

Regarding the question about how Peggy derived from Margaret, you showed some astonishment that Daisy derived from Margaret. It is, in fact, the origin of the name. La marguerite is French for daisy. Daisy historically (until this century) has been a common diminutive of Margaret, and in the fifteenth century Marguerite d’Anjou, wife of England’s Henry VI, used the daisy as her personal symbol.

Following how names come about is always fun and interesting.