Male equivalent of "maid", please?

Question

A friend plays Debussy's "Maid with Flaxen Hair" in a different key, and wants to call it a different name. I suggested "Lad with Flaxen Hair", but I'm not sure whether "lad" is exactly the male equivalent of "maid", as "boy" is to "girl".

I googled it, but few answers are relevant. I think the "maid" here is something just a little different from "girl", so what would you guys suggest as its male equivalent, please? Thank you!

J. Taylor · Answer

Actually, "lad" would be fine to change gender.
The original title, La fille aux cheveux de lin, more than suggests that it is about a "girl". "Maid" was, for whatever reason, the word chosen for the English title by a publisher.
Of course, if one is free to change the gender of the subject , then one would also be free to change the character of the subject.

KarlG · Answer

I would suggest the Youth with the Flaxen Hair as the title of your transposed and transgendered Debussy piece. A youth in the singular evokes the same era as maid and has the same connotation of romance.
Lad would be fine were it not for various modern associations: "Jack the lad," "He's a bit of a lad," "lads and ladettes."

Male equivalent of "maid", please?

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