A unisex or androgynous name is one which is used by both males and females. Sometimes parents choose a name because they know it’s a unisex name; other times, perhaps more frequently, parents are unaware that their chosen name is also popular with the opposite sex.
In some countries, such as Germany , the bestowing of unisex names is discouraged by law, which requires that babies be given names that conform to one gender or the other.
In the United States , no such restriction applies. You can name your baby anything you like, and many parents do. In 2006, one leading pregnancy website reported more than 40 variations of the spelling of Mackenzie, among their readers.
Surprisingly, it is not among the ranks of the “made-up" names, such as Machenzzie, that the unisex names are usually found, although a few are. Most unisex names are names that have belonged at one time or another with one gender, ususally male. But over time, the other gender has begun to use the name as well, and may pull ahead in popularity. The trend is usually for girls to take ownership of names that used to belong to boys, often names that have fallen out of favor in recent years.
Conventional wisdom is that once a name such as the newly-hot Addison moves from the male to the female side, it will not move back. Generally, this seems to be true, although there are boy’s names such as Dylan and Tyler which have successfully fought off an incursion by the girls, and retained their male popularity.
How do you determine which names are unisex? Some names that used to be unisex, such as Adrian (now firmly a boy’s name), Erin (now definitely for girls), or Blair (now fading from sight) make it clear that the landscape of unisex names is always shifting, and is as much subject to the whims of fashion as other baby names.
One way to measure the popularity of unisex names is to begin by pulling all the boys’ and girls’ names that are in the top thousand most popular names, based on data from the Social Security Administration, the generally accepted standard for measuring popularity year to year. Then, names that are common to both lists can be placed in rank according to their actually popularity, and pretty soon the names that are popular with both boys and girls will become clear. Names that are highly-ranked for both boys and girls are therefore the most popular unisex names. Those names that are very popular with one gender, and only mildly popular with the other, are much less androgynous.
Using this methodology, for the latest data available, it is quite easy to come up with America ’s Top Ten Unisex Baby Names. The most popular androgynous name, without a doubt, is Jordan . It is extremely popular with both boys and girls, and a bit more favored by boys than girls. Close behind come Alexis, Angel, and Riley. At number five is Peyton, followed by Taylor, Cameron, and Jayden. Number nine is Avery, and rounding out the top ten is the name Jaden, a variant spelling of number eight Jayden.
That’s the top ten for the year 2005, which are the latest figures available. No doubt when the figures for 2006 are released, in May of 2007, there will be some changes. But for the top four names, Jordan, Alexis, Angel, and Riley, change may be slow in coming. Those four were all popular unisex names more than a decade ago, and are still tremendously popular today. They are, without doubt, America ’s top unisex baby names.
About the author:
Neil Street is co-publisher of Baby Names Garden , a leading website devoted to baby names. His most recent work has involved the issue of unique baby names.
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