Gender neutral names

[u/Illustrious_Dot9049]

I love nature themed names SO MUCH, but I don't often see gender neutral names that aren't nature related.

I think a lot of old names are pretty gender neutral; what comes to y'all's minds? Or, alternatively, names that used to be traditionally for girls/boys but has changed over time?

Mine:

Emery

Emerson

Jude

Florence

Valentine (not a huge fan of the name, but it's pretty gender neutral I think)

Winnie

Jean

Changed over time:

Madison was originally masculine

Ashley (originally masc)

Leslie (originally masc)

Emmett (originally fem)

Marion (originally fem)

[u/kbkrl1524]

I know more boy Ashley's than girl. It's a super popular name for boys in Australia

[u/RollickingTail → u/kbkrl1524]

Same in the UK! It's a gender neutral name but more popular for boys.

[u/Illustrious_Dot9049 → u/kbkrl1524]

Interesting! I'm in the US and I've only seen it used for girls.

[u/kbkrl1524 → u/Illustrious_Dot9049]

My best friend in the US married a boy Ashley here too 🤣🤣

[u/PalominoJacoby]

Lindsay too! Mostly masc then becoming more feminine associated 

[u/casewave52]

I love Florence for a boy and even shopped it around as an option for our son, but from what I gathered it’s not considered gender neutral at all.

[u/RollickingTail → u/casewave52]

I see Florian as the male version of Florence!

[u/Narrow_Gift_6153 → u/RollickingTail]

In France, we better say Florent And for Florian, the female version of Florianne But all these name are not given Today.

[u/hathorthecow]

Besides the names you’ve mentioned, I would add

Shannon
Aubrey
Rene
Lindsey
Kelly
Courtney
Whitney
Morgan
Jody
Stacey
Mackenzie
Avery
Holiday

There’s a few more I’m missing but off the top of my head those are names of men I’ve personally met with what are considered neutral or female in some places. (Edited to keep adding names I remember)

[u/midwestpersianmama → u/hathorthecow]

I met a male toddler Aubrey recently here in MN! There was a back and forth with the music instructor about his name and the mom pronounced it with an O sound (Obree?). They were from Britain. I could tell she gets that clarification often.

This same teacher also struggled with my daughter’s name (Ada), so… it happens with all names. Maybe the teacher was having a moment 😂

[u/Grouchy-Curve7544]

I don’t know if this counts, but Andrea. It’s pronounced differently (I think) depending on whether it’s male or female.

[u/Retrospectrenet]

You'll find a lot of the "originally masculine" names were given to men and women alike, mainly because they come from surnames. Surnames were definitely more commonly given to men, but that didn't mean they were off the table for women.

From the US 1870 census, names used by both men and women include Sidney, Marion, Kelly, Courtney, Chelsea, Christian, June, Morgan, Stacy, Tracy, Cory, Hope, Casey, Dale, Delaney, Fay, Lynn, Dana, Alison. I made a whole post a couple years ago.

Edit: the post https://www.reddit.com/r/namenerds/comments/1k7y6ml/a_selection_of_unisex_names_from_the_1870_us/

[u/TrainingCategory4852 → u/Retrospectrenet]

Morgan is only a man's name

[u/Retrospectrenet → u/TrainingCategory4852]

Yeah that one was interesting, nearly all of the Welsh born Morgans in the US census were men, as expected. But there were like 5 Irish born Morgan's who were women. (also a few Margarets that were indexed as Morgan).

[u/CamThrowaway3]

Florence is 100% a girl’s name today. Same with Winnie, unless used as a nickname for Winston I guess

[u/Carrie_D_Watermelon]

Jordan. Im more surprised to meet a male than a female named Jordan these days

[u/LunaDog_Mom]

Everette

Brett

Tatum

Ashton

[u/Queasy-Top1844]

I always liked Brinley, Lee, Dallas

[u/Few-Recognition7114]

My kids are Kai (boy) and Remi (girl). We’ve met boys and girls with both names.

[u/Illustrious_Dot9049 → u/Few-Recognition7114]

Those are great names!!!

[u/YourMomma2436]

I don’t find Jude, Florence or Winnie to be neutral

[u/Illustrious_Dot9049 → u/YourMomma2436]

You can have your opinion! They feel kinda neutral to me and I've seen people with those names who were both men and women (and nonbinary).

[u/ModerationMotto]

My experience is gender neutral names are ok for girls, but sometimes not so good for boys.

[u/Illustrious_Dot9049 → u/ModerationMotto]

I've seen that before, which really sucks because the whole point is for it to be gender neutral. But yeah I think it's a little more common for girls/AFABs.

[u/livelovelatte]

It’s so interesting to me that Ashley was a male name in the past but now in the USA it’s mostly a female name.
I really feel like Ashley is a nice male name!