In 2023, more than 2,700 names appeared in the U.S. baby name data both as girl names and as boy names.
Which of these names were the most gender-neutral overall?
To create a useful set of rankings, I (first) excluded any name not given to at least 150 babies in total, then (second) sorted the remaining names by how evenly they were given to babies of each gender.
Here are the 25 names that came out on top:
| Female usage | Male usage | |
| 1. Blake | 49.63% (1,346 girls) | 50.37% (1,366 boys) |
| 2. Akari | 50.46% (110 girls) | 49.54% (108 boys) |
| 3. Campbell | 50.47% (215 girls) | 49.53% (211 boys) |
| 4. Brighton | 50.60% (85 girls) | 49.40% (83 boys) |
| 5. Marlo | 49.26% (100 girls) | 50.74% (103 boys) |
| 6. Azariah | 50.77% (527 girls) | 49.23% (511 boys) |
| 7. Bellamy | 48.74% (330 girls) | 51.26% (347 boys) |
| 8. Justice | 48.70% (243 girls) | 51.30% (256 boys) |
| 9. Ramsey | 48.68% (92 girls) | 51.32% (97 boys) |
| 10. Arie | 51.34% (96 girls) | 48.66% (91 boys) |
| 11. Finley | 48.57% (1,106 girls) | 51.43% (1,171 boys) |
| 12. Ashtyn | 48.54% (100 girls) | 51.46% (106 boys) |
| 13. Alexis | 51.51% (681 girls) | 48.49% (641 boys) |
| 14. Wynn | 48.48% (80 girls) | 51.52% (85 boys) |
| 15. Charlie | 51.66% (2,235 girls) | 48.34% (2,091 boys) |
| 16. Kacey | 47.75% (191 girls) | 52.25% (209 boys) |
| 17. Robin | 52.37% (354 girls) | 47.63% (322 boys) |
| 18. True | 47.54% (203 girls) | 52.46% (224 boys) |
| 19. Perry | 47.47% (122 girls) | 52.53% (135 boys) |
| 20. Honor | 47.37% (99 girls) | 52.63% (110 boys) |
| 21. Arden | 52.67% (237 girls) | 47.33% (213 boys) |
| 22. Jael | 47.31% (132 girls) | 52.69% (147 boys) |
| 23. Tatum | 46.83% (1,314 girls) | 53.17% (1,492 boys) |
| 24. Aris | 46.49% (86 girls) | 53.51% (99 boys) |
| 25. Divine | 53.55% (113 girls) | 46.45% (98 boys) |
I did experiment with other cut-off points (e.g., 50 babies, 100 babies, 200 babies), but I thought 150 offered the best result — an interesting mix of names, backed up by numbers high enough to be meaningful.
Nearly all of the (more than seventy) baby names that were even fifty-fifty splits last year were bestowed just a handful of times.
Source: SSA
Image: Adapted from Gallery 1 by Sarah Howells under CC BY-SA 3.0.
I like the surname names best (Blake, Campbell, Bellamy, Ramsey, Finley, Tatum) and have some favorites of my own, e.g., Aiken, Kearney, Reilly, Ellery, and Reeve.
It’s always interesting to see names that were previously almost entirely used for one gender slowly shift to being used by the other. It seems to happen mostly with traditionally “male names” that start being used as girl names also and eventually are thought of as “girl names” and are rarely given to boys.
There are outliers of course that stay mostly unisex like Alex, Taylor, Shelby, etc. I wonder which of the names on this list will remain truly unisex in their usage and which will go the way of Beverly, Carol, etc
@Ellyn – I wonder that, too. I’m also curious how often the male-to-female “gender shift” in names is discussed in gender studies classes, if at all.