I guess if you really want to note how it's by a female author, you could have it as "Ms. George Eliot", although that seems rather tacky.
>It's also a bit sad that most English names are gendered.
Non-gendered names are actually pretty much illegal here, so the English way isn't really that crazy.
I remember when I moved to Finland and learned of this I immediately went to search for people with the same surname as myself. After that I looked for people called "Steve".
Steve is an English name, and a male name at that. The female version would be "Stephany". Yet despite that you can see that less than 5, and more than 0, women were registered as "Steve" between 1980 and 1999:
https://verkkopalvelu.vrk.fi/nimipalvelu/default.asp?L=3
That doesn't mean they were permitted to be named that at birth of course, it is probably other immigrants such as myself. But oddly fascinating.
There are exceptions in the name law when it comes to people who have "connections to foreign countries".
For example, there's such rejected first names as "Marihuana", "Avicii", "Kapteeni" (Captain), "Salaisuus" (Secret), "Noppa" (Dice), "Hoito Virhe" ("Medicial Malpractice" as first and last name) and "Sukka" (Sock). Guess the idea that giving a boy a girl's name can have a similar effect for the child as naming them "Sock".
Hade to look that up. He apparently named his son "X Æ A-12": https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52557291 . Will probably create some issues with future IT-systems. I know a "Jo Å" and he have trouble registering for services from time to time.
According to https://www.kotus.fi/kielitieto/nimisto/henkilonnimet/etu-_j... the standard for same gender is 5 people that are alive, i.e. once 5 men and 5 women have that name, it could be given to either gender. Not sure what would happen if there was a huge imbalance though (like 1000 women with the name & 10 men). At least Rauni and Kaino have been granted to both genders after the law came in effect.