Hellobee

When you want classic names, the Social Security Administration website is a great place to start, as their archives go all the way back to 1880. As I immersed myself in all top 1000 names Americans have chosen to lay on our children over nearly 150 years, I was amazing by how many names crossed genders over the years. Leslie, Francis/Frances and Jessie/Jesse were all over the SSA as gender neutral names, and are all names that showed up multiple times from the 1890s onward.

As I was looking to names that currently are viewed as gender neutral, I thought it was interesting that some are ‘classic’ names that are crossing genders and others are more modern names that seem to have sprung up simultaneously as an option for baby boys and baby girls. Many of these gender neutral names also seem to be ‘traditional’ surnames and are crossing boxes in that way, too!

Some of the more classic gender neutral names I found include:

• Parker
• Kennedy
• Elliot
• Emerson
• Sawyer
• Taylor
• Casey
• Daryl

• Bailey
• Harper
• Skyler
• Justice
• River
• Harley
• Dylan
• Blake
• Cameron
• Ryan

I think I might love the current trend of mixing gender neutral first names with super-feminine or hyper-masculine middle names, like:

• Emerson Rose
• Skyler Jonathan
• Sawyer Anastasia
• Blake Matthew

What’s your favorite gender neutral name, or gender neutral name pairing?