Which unisex baby names were the most popular in 2022?
To figure this out, I did two things. First, I identified all the gender-neutral names in the latest batch of U.S. baby name data. (To qualify as gender-neutral, a name must be given to girls at least one-third of the time and to boys at least one-third of the time.) Second, I sorted those hundreds of gender-neutral names by total usage: male plus female.
The following names came out on top:
- Parker
- River
- Charlie
- Blake
- Emerson
- Finley
- Phoenix
- Remington
- Tatum
- Rory
- Dakota
- Ari
- Shiloh
- Alexis
- Armani
- Remy
- Salem
- Legacy
- Skyler
- Denver
The first four names — Parker, River, Charlie, and Blake — were also the top four in 2021.
The five names that entered the top 20 were Shiloh, Salem, Legacy, Skyler, and Denver. Four of the five qualified as unisex in 2021, but ranked lower on the list. Legacy, on the other hand, was slightly over two-thirds male in 2021.
The five names that dropped out of the top 20 were Hayden, Amari, Oakley, Reign, and Milan. All five failed to qualify as unisex in 2022. Hayden, Amari and Milan were given to too many boys; Oakley and Reign were given to too many girls.
Here are those top 20 names again, this time with total counts and gender percentages:
| Number of babies* | Percentage girls | Percentage boys | |
| Parker | 6,243 | 38.49% | 61.51% |
| River | 5,379 | 35.55% | 64.45% |
| Charlie | 4,420 | 52.53% | 47.47% |
| Blake | 3,014 | 47.81% | 52.19% |
| Emerson | 2,975 | 57.61% | 42.39% |
| Finley | 2,571 | 52.74% | 47.26% |
| Phoenix | 2,335 | 43.08% | 56.92% |
| Remington | 2,217 | 35.14% | 64.86% |
| Tatum | 2,202 | 52.32% | 47.68% |
| Rory | 2,181 | 43.83% | 56.17% |
| Dakota | 2,137 | 56.34% | 43.66% |
| Ari | 1,736 | 41.24% | 58.76% |
| Shiloh | 1,543 | 59.82% | 40.18% |
| Alexis | 1,533 | 56.69% | 43.31% |
| Armani | 1,496 | 46.86% | 53.14% |
| Remy | 1,411 | 35.08% | 64.92% |
| Salem | 1,087 | 63.75% | 36.25% |
| Legacy | 1,000 | 65.00% | 35.00% |
| Skyler | 973 | 58.38% | 41.62% |
| Denver | 963 | 33.33% | 66.67% |
So which names came next on the list?
The following, ranked 21st through 35th, all fell within both the girls’ top 1,000 and the boys’ top 1,000 in 2022:
- Briar, 924 total babies
- Azariah, 903
- Drew, 896
- Amiri, 880
- Bellamy, 847
- Ocean, 842
- Jamie, 841
- Sevyn, 792
- Dior, 745
- Chandler, 719
- Tru, 710
- Murphy, 709
- Layne, 702
- Justice, 643
- Robin, 637
And here are the rest of the unisex names that had a combined usage of at least 200 babies (in descending order):
Quincy, Kingsley, Jessie, Sol, Khari, Ira, Landry, Joey, Campbell, Kacey, Arden, True, Yael, Jaylin, Shea, Harlem, Joan, Kodi, Hollis, Sidney, Shai, Jireh, Ripley, Laken, Bowie, Kit, Ever, Montana, Kasey, Kadence, Yuri, Jael, Azari, Gentry, Rain, Storm, Perry, Honor, Denim, Isa, Divine, Merritt, Dominique, Camdyn, Jelani, Cove, Ashtyn, Jean, Armoni, Jules, Brighton, Channing
Kacey was one of the few names that happened to hit 50/50 usage — exactly 202 baby girls and 202 baby boys — in 2022. Movie-fueled Marvel was another 50/50 name.
Source: SSA
Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
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