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Sonequa Martin-Green is Your DSC Star

Michael is a relatively common female name tbh, I can name two actresses of the top of my head. Michael Michelle who played Cleo in ER and Michael Hyatt who is in Crazy Ex Girlfriend.
Interesting! I had no idea. No explanation required then.
 
Michael is a relatively common female name tbh, I can name two actresses of the top of my head. Michael Michelle who played Cleo in ER and Michael Hyatt who is in Crazy Ex Girlfriend.

Michael Hyatt picked up that nickname in High School, big Michael Jackson Fan apparently, She's actually Charlene Hyatt. But it is Michael Michelle's real name.
 
There is always the "multi-sex/sex changing" alien possibility as well. I don't think it's been said whether or not she's playing a full-blooded human character in the show.
 
I'm thinking this might be a Bryan Fuller quirk that stuck around.

He has this habit of casting female main characters and give them male-sounding names. There was Georgia "George" Lass in Dead Like Me, and her sister was named Reggie. Caroline Dhavernas played Jaye Tyler in Wonderfalls. Anna Friel's character was named Charlotte on Pushing Daisies but everyone called her Chuck. Freddie Lounds was the name of the female journalist on Hannibal. The character she was based on from the books was a man, just like Alan Bloom, the blueprint for Alana Bloom... who I'm pretty sure I've read they initially planned to refer to as Al on the show.

He does this so often that I was actually expecting a character with a female name and a male-sounding nickname ever since Sonequa Martin-Green was confirmed as the main character of Discovery. It looks like they simply went one step further and named her Michael, instead of Michelle and then having people refer to her as 'Mike' or something.
 
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Michael is a relatively common female name tbh, I can name two actresses of the top of my head. Michael Michelle who played Cleo in ER and Michael Hyatt who is in Crazy Ex Girlfriend.

It really doesn't appear to be a common name for females in the USA. It is predominantly used for males.

http://www.ourbabynamer.com/Michael-name-popularity.html

Where I live, it is not a female name at all and I suspect it might be so in a lot of other countries, too. As they are selling the series world wide, why didn't they use a clearly female name? Do they want to make her appear masculine with it?
 
It really doesn't appear to be a common name for females in the USA. It is predominantly used for males.

http://www.ourbabynamer.com/Michael-name-popularity.html

Where I live, it is not a female name at all and I suspect it might be so in a lot of other countries, too. As they are selling the series world wide, why didn't they use a clearly female name? Do they want to make her appear masculine with it?

Earth is united in the future, there could names from all over the world.
 
I'm thinking this might be a Bryan Fuller quirk that stuck around.

He has this habit of casting female main characters and give them male-sounding names. There was Georgia "George" Lass in Dead Like Me, and her sister was named Reggie. Caroline Dhavernas played Jaye Tyler in Wonderfalls. Anna Friel's character was named Charlotte on Pushing Daisies but everyone called her Chuck. Freddie Lounds was the name of the female journalist on Hannibal. The character she was based on from the books was a man, just like Alan Bloom, the blueprint for Alana Bloom... who I'm pretty sure I've read they initially planned to refer to as Al on the show.

He does this so often that I was actually expecting a character with a female name and a male-sounding nickname ever since Sonequa Martin-Green was confirmed as the main character of Discovery. It looks like they simply went one step further and named her Michael, instead of Michelle and then having people refer to her as 'Mike' or something.

That would actually be my favourite explanation for "Michael".
Thanks for the Info! I wasn't aware this was a Fuller thing. Her having a male name, without it being an issue, would be a nice and subtle way to handle things, without it being devisive.

Not that I would mind a sci-fi show with a transgendered main character, mind you. Just, with how things are, if they would do it, she would probably be pretty fast demoted to a secondary character and Jason Isaacs becoming the inofficial lead of the show. And I would rather have her stay the "lead" of the story. (To be super honest: my favourite version doesn't actually have a "lead", but is an ensemble show, and she will be the "Captain", the authority figure, without actually being front and center in every episode. I hope that's what they are heading to in season 2 and forward...)
 
That would actually be my favourite explanation for "Michael".
Thanks for the Info! I wasn't aware this was a Fuller thing. Her having a male name, without it being an issue, would be a nice and subtle way to handle things, without it being devisive.

You give people too much credit. Not that that's a bad thing mind you, keep it up.
 
We've yet to see any direct evidence that anything has been changed about the show since Fuller left.
 
Seems like a silly gimmick to me.

Hey, at least the name doesn't end in "a" - that's not a dig; one of the laziest habits among male English-speaking fiction writers is giving an inordinate number of woman characters names that end in vowels. You know, like Deanna or Tasha or Uhura...

Could have been "Michaela."
 
Hey, at least the name doesn't end in "a" - that's not a dig; one of the laziest habits among male English-speaking fiction writers is giving an inordinate number of woman characters names that end in vowels. You know, like Deanna or Tasha or Uhura...

Could have been "Michaela."
Or Dennisa
 
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