361 names, most popular right now in United States
Starting with DHow Do I Choose a Unisex Name?
Unisex names come with a set of questions the other two lists do not raise. These are the ones worth thinking through before you commit.
Which way is this name moving?
The single most useful thing to know, and the one most often skipped. Traffic between the sexes is almost entirely one-way: names move from boys to girls and very rarely back. So a name that is genuinely balanced today is unlikely to still be balanced when your child is twenty — it will probably read as a girl's name. Every name on this list carries its own split, which is the number to look at rather than the label.
Balanced everywhere, or only here?
A name can be unisex in one country and firmly one sex in another. That is worth checking if your family is spread across more than one, because the assumption a name carries is set locally. Switch the country above the list and the ranking changes with it.
How will it be assumed on paper?
Forms, registers, class lists and strangers will guess, and they will guess whichever way the name leans in your country. This is worth deciding how you feel about rather than discovering later. For some families it is the point; for others it is a small friction repeated for years.
Is it a word, a surname or a name?
Unisex lists hold three quite different things. Surnames used as first names are the largest group and the most likely to stay balanced. Word names — a virtue, a place, a colour — carry whatever the word carries. Genuine given names used for both sexes are the smallest group and usually the oldest.
Should I care what it means?
Check it rather than assume it, especially for surname-names: their meanings describe somebody's trade or the field they lived beside, not a quality anyone chose. And be sceptical of a flattering meaning attached to a recently coined name — a name with no history attracts one.
What if we cannot agree?
Choose separately and compare the overlap, rather than reading lists at each other. The person reading has already made their choice by picking what to read and in what order, and the other person ends up responding to a pitch instead of choosing.
Not Sure Where to Start?
Swipe through unisex names with your partner and only see the ones you both like.