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More Parents Are Opting for Gender-Neutral Baby Names

One day, the need for gender-neutral name lists will be obsolete. Any name could be either a boy name or a girl name, so it's kind of silly to separate them. And more and more parents are opting for names that could fit for any gender: According to a study cited in The Atlantic, "In 2021, 6% of American babies were bestowed androgynous names, approximately five times the number in the 1880s." And that's only getting faster: According to research done by baby-naming site Nameberry and the New York Times, which looked back at 100 years of baby names, there was an 88% increase in the use of unisex names between 1985 and 2015.

For now, though, the Social Security Administration (SSA), which keeps data about the most popular baby names, still separates the name list by boys and girls. And from its data, we can see that there are some names that still seem most heavily associated with one gender. But parents, it seems, are less and less likely to adhere to conventions about which names belong to which column.

If you're one of the parents interested in unisex baby names, these are trending gender-neutral names for 2023. Some are common for everyone; others are traditionally associated with one gender but are increasingly flipping to the other one. But they're all beautiful, and unlikely to leave with you with baby-name regret.

Most Popular Gender-Neutral Names

The SSA recently released a rank of the top 1,000 most popular baby names used in the United States last year, separated by sex. This year, out of the top 100 or so names for boys and names for girls, these monikers wound up ranking on both lists.

  1. Parker (No. 94 for boys, No. 115 for girls)

  2. River (No. 105 for boys, No. 150 for girls)

  3. Rowan (No. 96 for boys, No. 276 for girls)

  4. Riley (No. 39 for girls, No. 225 for boys)

  5. Avery (No. 26 for girls, No. 221 for boys)

  6. Logan (No. 33 for boys, No. 372 for girls)

  7. Quinn (No. 73 for girls, No. 443 for boys)

  8. Jordan (No. 92 for boys, No. 504 for girls)

  9. Cameron (No. 64 for boys, No. 514 for girls)

  10. Angel (No. 62 for boys, No. 521 for girls)

  11. Carter (No. 47 for boys, No. 550 for girls)

  12. Ryan (No. 74 for boys, No. 582 for girls)

  13. Dylan (No. 41 for boys, No. 576 for girls)

  14. Noah (No. 2 for boys, No. 618 for girls)

  15. Ezra (No. 25 for boys, No. 648 for girls)

  16. Emery (No. 82 for girls, No. 727 for boys)

  17. Hunter (No. 101 for boys, No. 780 for girls)

  18. Kai (No. 59 for boys, No. 790 for girls)

  19. August (No. 106 for boys, No. 862 for girls)

  20. Nova (No. 32 for girls, No. 883 for boys)

Nonbinary Names

While those names above are both popular and in use for both boys and girls, some of them are still far more heavily weighted to one side than the other. Nameberry has compiled a list of what they call "nonbinary names," or names that are used (roughly) the same number of times across all columns. "Names in the nonbinary group are used equally for babies of any sex and do not identify with either gender," the site says. These truly unisex names include these monikers.

  1. Arbor

  2. Ash

  3. Charlie

  4. Drew

  5. Ellis

  6. Everest

  7. Jett

  8. Lowen

  9. Moss

  10. Oakley

  11. Onyx

  12. Phoenix

  13. Ridley

  14. Remy

  15. Robin

  16. Royal

  17. Sage

  18. Scout

  19. Tatum

  20. Wren

small beautiful child lies on the bed on their stomach and smiles
Vera Livchak

Trending Unisex Names

Of the names Nameberry has cited, a few, like Arbor, Sage and Moss — along with bird names like Robin and Wren — are nature-inspired names, a trend we've been seeing for a few years now. The Atlantic says other unisex names have arisen from other naming trends, which just aren't associated with any particular gender. One of them is the use of last names as first names, like Blake, Emerson, Lennon and Remington. Another is place names, like Phoenix, Dakota and Brooklyn. And two of the most popular names The Atlantic saw — Charlie and Frankie — follow the trend of using nicknames as first names. (Stevie is another popular choice in this vein, like Stevie Nicks.)

Classic Unisex Names

When you look at the really big picture, throughout history there have been many names the names that flipped from blue to pink and back again — or landed somewhere in the middle. Quartz has analyzed a few names that have become more and more gender-neutral over the past 100 or so years. They may have started off being associated with either boys or girls, but over time, the other side has managed to even the score. (Interestingly, the names Ashton and Harper have become more gendered over time.) Some popular unisex names Quartz has observed include Alexis, Azariah, Baylor, Emory, Finley, Hayden, Justice, Landry, Skylar and Spencer.

Other names are more stable. Data scientist Nathan Yau analyzed SSA charts going back to 1930, and found names that kept the unisex 50-50 split for years, even decades. He also notes the times that a moment in pop-culture history — such as Disney using the name Ariel for the protagonist in The Little Mermaid — tipped the scales one way or another. According to Yau, these are the most typical unisex names that we haven't already mentioned:

  1. Jessie

  2. Marion

  3. Alva

  4. Ollie

  5. Cleo

  6. Kerry

  7. Guadalupe

  8. Carey

  9. Tommie

  10. Sammie

  11. Jamie

  12. Kris

  13. Robbie

  14. Tracy

  15. Merrill

  16. Noel

  17. Rene

  18. Johnnie

  19. Ariel

  20. Jan

Those are names that have been used pretty evenly for both boys and girls. Yau also notes the names that have switched the most, ping-ponging back and forth between being used by mostly girls, then mostly boys, and vice versa. The most toggled names are:

  1. Casey

  2. Jackie

  3. Kerry

  4. Jodie

  5. Rene

  6. Darian

  7. Robbie

  8. Milan

  9. Jaylin

  10. Devan

  11. Channing

  12. Gerry

  13. Monroe

  14. Kirby

  15. Santana

an adorable baby at home
PeopleImages

More Options

If you didn't find your unisex name among those listed above, here are additional gender-neutral names.

  1. Adair

  2. Aubrey

  3. Bailey

  4. Bellamy

  5. Bentley

  6. Blair

  7. Bowie

  8. Campbell

  9. Cassidy

  10. Cedar

  11. Colby

  12. Courtney

  13. Dallas

  14. Dale

  15. Darcy

  16. Echo

  17. Gray

  18. Greer

  19. Harley

  20. Haven

  21. Holland

  22. Hollis

  23. Indigo

  24. Kendall

  25. Kit

  26. Lane

  27. Lennox

  28. London

  29. Loyal

  30. Luxury

  31. Lyric

  32. Marley

  33. Morgan

  34. Navy

  35. Ocean

  36. Palmer

  37. Peyton

  38. Presley

  39. Raleigh

  40. Reagan

  41. Reef

  42. Reese

  43. Rory

  44. Salem

  45. Sawyer

  46. Shea

  47. Shiloh

  48. Sidney

  49. Sloan

  50. Story

  51. Sutton

  52. Taran

  53. Taylor

  54. True

  55. Zion


Looking for more great baby names? Check out these Good Housekeeping guides:

Indian/Hindu Boy Names | Indian/Hindu Girl Names | Hispanic Boy Names | Hispanic Girl Names | Irish Boy Names | Irish Girl Names | Long Names for Boys | Long Names for Girls | Short Names for Boys | Short Names for Girls

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