Swipe for 1980-1999, 1960-1979, and why Alex and Taylor aren't on the other charts.

Blog post with code, more charts, analysis, and pretty tables: https://nameplay.org/blog/most-non-binary-gender-neutral-names

Design is based on a post by Randy Olson from 11 years ago. Yeah, this sub has been around for a while. All code and analysis are original.

Includes names with at least 5k total births across both genders in the Social Security Administration baby names data during each chart's time period. Names are ranked using a diversity index, which subtracts each gender's squared proportion of births from 1. This metric is called the Simpson Index in ecology and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index in economics.

This visualization focuses on the names with the most non-binary gender distribution in the baby name data, NOT the most common names considered unisex.

Posted by aar0nbecker

46 comments

  2. I’m surprised so many boys are being named Dominique, I have never seen that before

  3. Anticipate A drop off in Skyler over the next 25 year period.

  4. Chris, Sam, and Alex in the last chart maybe don’t seem to be including the full names that get shortened to it.

    e.g. Samuel vs Samantha -> both often shortened to ‘Sam’

    and for Chris, usually Kris* -> still pronounced ‘Chris’

    Alexis, Alexa -> Alex

    etc

  5. As a foreigner some of these are wild. Nearly 50/50 split of boys and girls named Angel? Sage, Jean?

  6. Jaylin is interesting. The story I’d always heard touted was that that name didn’t exist before NBA star Jalen Rose was born. He was on TV in the 90s and suddenly a bunch of other Jalen-esque named kids started popping up a decade or two later (it IS a pretty cool name.)

    Last years NBA champions had not one, but TWO dudes named some variation of “Jalen Williams” on the team.

    Anyway, surprised it’s like half girls if that story was true.

  7. That last slide’s “despite what you may think”, it’s still normal to call girls Chris, Sam and Alex due to Christine/a, Samantha and Alexandra..

  8. Interesting, the staying power of Marion. It was the original name of John Wayne (Marion Morrison).

  10. The letter “y” getting a lot of playtime on this list

  11. Most of the “least androgynous” ones are nicknames. I wonder the sex breakdown of people *who go by Alex / Chris* regardless of full government name (Alexander / ra, Christopher / ine.)

  14. How is there so many people that chose to name their daughter fuckin Murphy?

  15. I’m really surprised Kelly isn’t on this list! I know an equal amount of girl and boy Kelly’s!

  16. I didn’t know Dakota can be a boy name! I always thought it was a girl name because of Dakota Fanning. Not that there’s anything wrong for a boy/man to be named Dakota of course. To each their own.

  17. Is that Jael said like Jail? Who the hell names their kid that

  18. Actually a little surprised at just how lopsided Taylor is. As a guy with that name I was pretty certain it was much more common for women, just didn’t expect it to be greater than 5:1.

  19. Taylor Swift really swung that name to the girls didn’t it.

  20. So many of these names make me question parent’s naming decisions…

    It’s really annoying for people to have to always spell out their name. It doesn’t make your kid unique, it makes them have a hassle in life that they didn’t need.

  21. I have legit never heard the name Azariah and apparently there are thousands roaming the US.

  22. What I find super interesting is that, over the decades, Morgan went from being a masculine name to a feminine name

  23. we have some tradegiehs in that first slide. oh my

  24. What am I missing about girls being named Frankie? I’ve never heard of this. Short form of Francis or something?

  25. The boys’ spelling is Jesse, Jessie as a boy should be very rare

  27. I’ve never heard of Jael. Who tf names their kid something that’s a homophone of a negative thing? That’s just brain damaged.

  28. As an Irish person why are our surnames being given as forenames? 

  29. Frankie is traditionally short for Francis or Frances, so it’s only unisex because they didn’t include the original
    Jael was a woman in the Bible 
    Dominique is the feminine spelling of Dominic

  32. You could argue about the definition of “most unisex”. I get that “Kirby” is high on the list because 2577 aand 2746 are very close. But then for every boy AND girl called Kirby there are at least ten called Taylor, so you could also argue that that name is more unisex, because it is given more often to both boys and girls in absolute numbers, even if girls are more prevalent.

    In other words, you could also consider simply ranking them by the lower of the boys/girls totals for each name, to get the names you’re most likely to encounter for both genders at some point.

  33. I would say the vast majority of these names don’t come across as unisex/androgynous.

  34. Sorry… Jael?

    Is that supposed to describe where we should send parents who name their kid that?

    Edit: ohh, Yael. The woman who had sex with her enemy a bunch of times to get him tired and then drove a stake through his head. Nice namesake.

  35. justice is the worst this is how you nominatively determine sociopaths 

  36. I’m surprised to not see Kelly on here, for the 60-80s timescale

  37. I’m apparently dyslexic and read it as unsexy baby names and was flabbergasted !

  38. Am I the only one that’s baffled by all of these people naming their kid Justice?

  40. In the last 25 years, we’ve had 27,000 kids named Justice and 13,000 named Azariah?

  41. Guadalupe as a male name? What? That’s a thing?

    Also who are these people naming their kids “Ocean”

  43. Why would you name your child “Jael”, incredibly stupid.

  44. And figures its all the worst names to name your kid

  45. I always thought that “Marian” was the feminine form of “Marion,” a boy’s name. Do people really name their girls “Marion?”

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