National Velvet

While reading about Elizabeth Taylor recently, I learned from her early movie "National Velvet" that Velvet is actually a female name. For several years I used an email address that contains the word "velvet," and I never realized it had any female connotation. How much confusion and misunderstanding could that have caused? I first learned the word from the phrase "Velvet Revolution" and the theme song of the movie Godfather, "Speak Softly Love," sung by Andy Williams ("Wine-colored days warmed by the sun / Deep velvet nights when we are one.")