Could ルフレ be considered a gender-neutral name?


In the Fire Emblem: Awakening game, the [avatar
character](http://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Avatar_\(Awakening\)#Fire_Emblem:_Awakening)
— that is, the main character whose name and gender you pick — has a default
name. In English, the default name is Robin, because the character can be male
or female. Robin is arguably a gender-neutral name in English, so it seems to
be a good choice.

In the Japanese version, the default name is ルフレ (Reflet). Does this
reasonably come across as "sounding" gender-neutral in the minds of Japanese
players? Or do they have no such context because it's a foreign name?




> Or do they have no such context because it's a foreign name?

This. ルフレ sounds very foreign to me, a native Japanese speaker who loves
games. People don't have any clue how to determine whether it's a male name or
female name. (But if I have to guess, I would imagine it's possibly an
European female name.)

I googled "ルフレ", and then excluded "-ファイヤーエムブレム", and "-スマブラ" (where ルフレ from
FE appears as a playable character). I could find only one different
[character](http://nekowiz.com/archives/40234361.html) with the same name, and
I think she is not so famous.




> Or do they have no such context because it's a foreign name?

This. ルフレ sounds very foreign to me, a native Japanese speaker who loves
games. People don't have any clue how to determine whether it's a male name or
female name. (But if I have to guess, I would imagine it's possibly an
European female name.)

I googled "ルフレ", and then excluded "-ファイヤーエムブレム", and "-スマブラ" (where ルフレ from
FE appears as a playable character). I could find only one different
[character](http://nekowiz.com/archives/40234361.html) with the same name, and
I think she is not so famous.

