The Baby Name Bible by Pamela Redmond Satran

And spellings have long signaled gender in names that sound the same: Yves vs. Satran said some gender neutral-names follow other trends, such as choosing traditional last names as first names (hello, Madison) or bits of geography and nature: Lake, Blue, Dakota. Whether we like it or not, names that skew a little masculine, or less feminine, are perceived as stronger, and I wanted that for my girls.” “The gender neutrality was not something my husband and I discussed explicitly and I would say it was more in my mind knowing firsthand the hurdles women face across so many areas of life. it reads as gender neutral to most people,” she said. “Sigrid is technically a girl’s name but because it’s so uncommon in the U.S. Kirsten Hammann, 45, in the San Francisco Bay area, and her husband named their daughters Teagan and Sigrid. “My partner is named Jerry, for Gerald, so when we get introduced as ‘Kyle and Jerry’ most people think I’m Jerry and he’s Kyle,” she said. Kyle Good grew up in the 1950s, the middle of five children and the only sibling with a gender-crossing name, based on a performer her father liked. Millennials aren’t the only ones to give their kids gender-neutral names. In fact, a lot of people choose unisex names because they think they’re cool or they’re meaningful to themselves but they raise their kids in a very gender-specific way.” Satran says the interest in embracing potential gender fluidity is “an important reason but it’s not the only reason. Pamela Redmond Satran, co-writer of “The Baby Name Bible” and “Cool Names for Babies,” blogs about baby-naming and is also co-founder of the baby name site, which crunches about 50,000 names every which way. I like that she feels she has options and knows she’ll be accepted by us no matter what.” Riley is 3. Of all the difficulties faced by those who live beyond, or across, the binary, we didn’t want name-changing to be one of them.

“We knew her sex, but gender is fluid and yet to be determined. “We chose a gender-neutral name, Riley, for my daughter,” said Lori Kinkler, a psychologist in San Antonio, Texas. But more names are being used for either sex regardless of which gender they were originally associated with, and neutral naming has become a flashpoint for debate. Pop culture and honoring family or religious history are important in baby naming, as is the cool factor. Name-watchers said crossovers and more neutral names haven’t overtaken the top spots but are more heavily represented in the broader ranking, especially among millennial parents. The Social Security Administration puts out a top 10 list of popular baby names every year based on its registrations, but it also keeps track of names on the rise in its top 1,000.

The Baby Name Bible by Pamela Redmond Satran