Wrong sex in GRO index

[Gallicrow]

I've just been looking in the GRO index for Ada Winifred Cronk, who was born in Kent around 1908.
I couldn't find her at first, tried various name variations and then, vaguely remembering that this had caught me out once before, changed the sex to male, and there she was:
CRONK, ADA  WINIFRED      BROOKER     
GRO Reference: 1908  M Quarter in MAIDSTONE  Volume 02A  Page 913

I was wondering how common this particular mistake is?

I tried to report it using the form on https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/indexes_report.asp
but had to fudge it a bit because there's no way to report this particular error! I just put the problem in the comment.

[rosie99]

It is not unusual, I certainly check both sexes when I cannot locate a record

[iolaus]

My great great grandmother was registered as a boy called Henry - 2 days after being baptised as a girl called Emily  (really wish I could find out the why with that one)

[BenRalph]

One of my ancestors was always known as Nancy Ruth but was registered as Lancelot and a Male. There was always the story that her mum registered her whilst drunk and couldn't say the name correctly. Nancy was registered as being born a day later than thr date she celebrated her birth to as her mum registered 43 days after she was born so took a day off.

[AntonyMMM]

Although these may be simple mistakes at registration (or sometimes in transcription), the GRO manual for registration does have a specific set of instructions for dealing with babies of "indeterminate sex".

The correspondence files of the Registrar General (series RG 48 at Kew) have many examples of corrections/re-registrations being done in such cases - much more common than we imagine.

[Andrew Tarr]

My great great grandmother was registered as a boy called Henry - 2 days after being baptised as a girl called Emily  (really wish I could find out the why with that one)

Presumably one of the registrars was a bit deaf, or an informant mumbled ? I don't suppose newborns' gender was actually checked 

[AntonyMMM]

Presumably one of the registrars was a bit deaf, or an informant mumbled ?

Always a convenient way of explaining away awkward evidence ......

[Marmalady]

I have a child that is transcribed as Joby (female) in the GRO, but FreeBMD has Toby.

On the censuses she is Deb(b)y or Deborah.

But as the mother's maiden name has a different spelling for each of 5 registrations, I suspect the Mother had a strong Polish accent so the Registrar did his best!