Gilda

Sorry if I impuned your name, no offense was intended.

I've never heard the name Dawn pronounced differently from Don. I don't doubt that you do, but I've always heard it pronounced, and would pronunce it myself as rhyming with, say lawn, fawn, con, and John. How is it pronounced differently from, say, dawn, meaning the time when the sun rises?

Don can be short for Donald, Donavan, Donnely or a half dozen others, or it can be just Don. I have an uncle Donavan, and one of my brothers is Don, not short for anything.

My point is that they are (or at least can) be pronounced the same, and context will always tell the listener which sex is appropriate when necessary.

While I'm at it, I wanted to add Sean / Shawn (pronounced the same as Don) to my list of perfectly acceptable gender neutral names, equally good for boys and girls, and like Chris or Kelly, almost perfectly gender neutral.