As a foreigner I find that great to be able to know if some of the more uncommon American names are male or female.
How did we manage to live thousands of years without. I guess we had names.
Well, for thousands of years we lived in small homogenous communities with only a handful of names. We also had very rigid gender norms. As times change we now live in more open communities with thousands of different names and looser gender norms. I oftentimes cannot easily guess the pronoun from a name.
We lived a long time without having to use honorifics yet we do now and are even publicly shamed for not doing so. Humanity and the language we use is a constantly evolving thing.
Are we? My impression was English language honorifics were going out of fashion. People are more likely to say Tom or Tom Smith than Mr. Smith these days
Dr, Your Honor, etc.
Indeed, names like "Alex", "Pat", and "Taylor".
Alex and Pat are diminutives. I would understand if only people with names like Taylor did state their gender though.