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.
Parker (No. 94 for boys, No. 115 for girls)
River (No. 105 for boys, No. 150 for girls)
Rowan (No. 96 for boys, No. 276 for girls)
Riley (No. 39 for girls, No. 225 for boys)
Avery (No. 26 for girls, No. 221 for boys)
Logan (No. 33 for boys, No. 372 for girls)
Quinn (No. 73 for girls, No. 443 for boys)
Jordan (No. 92 for boys, No. 504 for girls)
Cameron (No. 64 for boys, No. 514 for girls)
Angel (No. 62 for boys, No. 521 for girls)
Carter (No. 47 for boys, No. 550 for girls)
Ryan (No. 74 for boys, No. 582 for girls)
Dylan (No. 41 for boys, No. 576 for girls)
Noah (No. 2 for boys, No. 618 for girls)
Ezra (No. 25 for boys, No. 648 for girls)
Emery (No. 82 for girls, No. 727 for boys)
Hunter (No. 101 for boys, No. 780 for girls)
Kai (No. 59 for boys, No. 790 for girls)
August (No. 106 for boys, No. 862 for girls)
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.
Arbor
Ash
Charlie
Drew
Ellis
Everest
Jett
Lowen
Moss
Oakley
Onyx
Phoenix
Ridley
Remy
Robin
Royal
Sage
Scout
Tatum
Wren
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:
Jessie
Marion
Alva
Ollie
Cleo
Kerry
Guadalupe
Carey
Tommie
Sammie
Jamie
Kris
Robbie
Tracy
Merrill
Noel
Rene
Johnnie
Ariel
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:
Casey
Jackie
Kerry
Jodie
Rene
Darian
Robbie
Milan
Jaylin
Devan
Channing
Gerry
Monroe
Kirby
Santana
More Options
If you didn't find your unisex name among those listed above, here are additional gender-neutral names.
Adair
Aubrey
Bailey
Bellamy
Bentley
Blair
Bowie
Campbell
Cassidy
Cedar
Colby
Courtney
Dallas
Dale
Darcy
Echo
Gray
Greer
Harley
Haven
Holland
Hollis
Indigo
Kendall
Kit
Lane
Lennox
London
Loyal
Luxury
Lyric
Marley
Morgan
Navy
Ocean
Palmer
Peyton
Presley
Raleigh
Reagan
Reef
Reese
Rory
Salem
Sawyer
Shea
Shiloh
Sidney
Sloan
Story
Sutton
Taran
Taylor
True
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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