A unisex name (also known as an epicene name, a gender-neutral name or an androgynous name) is a given name that is not gender-specific. Unisex names are common in the English-speaking world, especially in the United States. By contrast, some countries have laws preventing unisex names, requiring parents to give their children sex-specific names. In other countries or cultures, social norms oppose such names and transgressions may result in discrimination, ridicule, and psychological abuse.
Names may have different gender connotations from country to country or language to language. For example, the Italian male name Andrea (derived from Greek Andreas) is understood as a female name in many languages, such as English, German, Hungarian, Czech, and Spanish.
Parents may name their child in honor of a person of another sex, which – if done widely – can result in the name becoming unisex. For example, Christians, particularly Catholics, may give a child a second/middle name of the opposite sex, e.g. name a son Marie or Maria in honor of the Virgin Mary or formerly Anne for Saint Anne; or name a daughter José in honor of Saint Joseph or Jean in honor of John the Baptist.
In the United States, one popular names website considers a name unisex if Census Bureau and Social Security Administration data shows a name is assigned to a particular gender less than 95 percent of the time.What Makes a Name ‘Gender Neutral’? the Answer Might Surprise You at thebump.com (based on US Census Bureau and Social Security Administration data)
Some masculine and feminine names are homophones, pronounced the same regardless of gender but spelled differently. These names are not strictly unisex names.
African
Unisex names of African origin include:
East Africa Alemayehu Berhane
South Africa Kagiso Karabo Tshepiso (promise) Lerato (love) Puleng Mogau/Magao Lebogang Mpho Lesedi Kabelo sentebale Zimbabwe
Shona, a Bantu group in Zimbabwe, have unisex names which may indicate the circumstances of the baby or the family during the time of the birth. All Shona names have a meaning, some also celebrate virtue or worship God.
West Africa Abimbola Ade Anan Ayo Chidi Chike Dayo Efe Tolu Nana Imani Ekei Bassey Offiong Obo Ife A Nigerian given name meaning 'Love'.
Asian Arabic
Armenian Arshaluys (Արշալույս) Artsvik (Արծվիկ) Nairi / Nayiri (Նաիրի, Նայիրի) Hayastan (Հայաստան)
Chinese
Chinese given names are composed of 1–3 Chinese characters, with the exception of non-Han ethnic groups who sometimes choose to use their native naming traditions instead and transliterate their names to Chinese for legal registration, often ending up in very long Chinese full names. Some characters have masculine connotations tied to them (for example, 偉 (wěi), 冠 (guàn), 宏 (hóng), 廷 (tíng), 傑 (jié), 豪 (háo)), some have feminine connotations (for example, 娟 (juān), 妍 (yán), 淑 (shú), 卉 (huì), 晴 (qíng), 薇 (wéi)), and some can be fully gender-neutral or will only gain a masculine/feminine leaning when paired with another character that has a specific leaning (for example, 家 (jiā), 安 (ān), 子 (zǐ), 文 (wén), 品 (pǐn), 華 (huá)). Some Chinese given names may have the same pronunciation, but use different characters associated with different genders to give the name a gender association.
Hebrew
Many of the modern Hebrew names have become unisex and are suitable for both boys and girls. Some popular examples are:
Indian languages
Many Indian names become unisex when written with Latin characters because of the limitations of transliteration. The spellings Chandra and Krishna, for example, are transliterations of both the masculine and feminine versions of those names. In Indian languages, the final a in each of these names are different letters with different pronunciations, so there is no ambiguity. However, when they are seen (and usually, spoken) by someone unfamiliar with Indian languages, they become sexually ambiguous. Other Indian names, such as Ananda, are exclusively or nearly exclusively masculine in India, but because of their a ending, are assumed to be feminine in Anglophone societies.
Nehal, Sonal, Sonu, Snehal, Niral, Pranjal and Anmol are used commonly to name baby boys or girls in western states of India such as Gujarat. Similarly, names like Kajal, Sujal, Viral, Harshal, Deepal, Bobby, Mrinal, Jyoti, Shakti, Nilam, Kiran, Lucky, Ashwini, Shashi, Malhar, Umang, Shubham and Anupam are also very common sex-neutral names or unisex names in India. Most Punjabi Sikh first names such as "Sandeep, Gurdeep, Kuldeep, Mandeep", "Surjeet, Gurjeet, Kuljeet, Harjeet, Manjeet", "Harpreet, Gurpreet, Jaspreet, Kulpreet, Manpreet", "Prabhjot, Harjot, Gurjot, Jasjot" and "Sukhjinder, Bhupinder, Jasbinder, Parminder, Kulvinder, Harjinder, Ranjodh, Sheeraz, Hardeep, Kirandeep, Sukhdeep, Govindpal, Encarl, Rajan" are unisex names and equally commonly given to either sex. Also, names derived from Dari Persian and Arabic, but not used among native speakers of those languages, are common among South Asian Muslims. Since Persian does not assign genders to inanimate nouns, some of these names are gender-neutral, for example Roshan, Hitesh, Sudesh, Parveen, and Insaaf.
Indonesian
Ade Ananda Ari Aulia Bintang Chandra Dana Deva Dian: lamp Dika Dwi Eka: first born Feby Kiki Lintang
Nana Nanda Nur Reza Riski Suryana Tri Wahyu Yana Yani
Japanese
Despite there being only a small number of Japanese unisex names in use, unisex names are widely popular. Many high-profile Japanese celebrities such as Hikaru Utada, Jun Matsumoto, Ryo Nishikido, and Izumi Sakai have unisex names.
Many of the entries in the following list, in Roman characters, each represent more than one name, with different meanings, which are often distinguished by the use of different kanji characters.
Nicknames Unisex names may also be used as nicknames. For example, a man named Ryounosuke and a woman named Ryouko may both use the unisex name Ryou as a nickname.
Kazakh Unisex names in Kazakhstan are not rare. About 555 000 (4,11%) Kazakh people in Kazakhstan have 617 unisex names with 10% threshold.
Korean All Korean names are unisex (ungendered), but some names are more commonly given to boys and other more commonly to girls.
Persian Arya Azar Dana Nikan Nima Tiam Yara
Turkish
There are many Turkish names which are unisex. These names are almost always pure Turkish names (i.e. not Turkified Arabic names that have an Islamic connotation) that derive from Turkish words. These names may either be modern names or be derived from Turkic mythology. Some Persian-derived Turkish names, like Can and Cihan, are also unisex, as are even a few Arabic-derived names, like İhsan and Nur.
Among the common examples of the many unisex names in Turkey are:
Vietnamese
Among modern Vietnamese names, unisex names are very popular. Vietnamese people may distinguish unisex names by middle names. For example, Quốc Khánh may be a male name (Quốc is a male name) and Ngân Khánh may be a female name (Ngân is a female name), and sex-specific middle names such as Văn for males and Thị for females also help. In many cases, a male could have a female name and vice versa. Popular examples of unisex names in Vietnamese are:
Anh (beautiful, outstanding, hero) An (safe and sound) Bình (peaceful) Châu (pearl) Dương (light, sun) Giang (big river) Hà (river) Hải (sea) Khánh (joyful celebration, bell) Linh (divinity, essence, spirit, soul) Nhân (kindness, humanity) Thanh (clear, pure, distinct, youth, young, cyan) Tú (elegant, talented person) Tường (wise, luck) Sang (bright, luxurious)
European Basque Euskaltzaindia, the official academic language regulatory institution which watches over the Basque language, has a list of unisex names. Some of them are: Alai Amaiur Amets Aran Bidatz Ekai Elur Iraultza Izar Joar
Serbo-Croatian
Matija (generally male, but female in the Neretva region) Saša (a nickname of Aleksandar/Aleksandra) Vanja Minja Borna Sandi (a nickname of Aleksandar/Aleksandra)
Czech Up until December 31, 2021, the Czech Registry Act forbade giving male names or surnames to females or female names or surnames to males, but did not restrict neutral names and surnames. As of January 1, 2022, females are now allowed to request a male surname for themselves or for their children without any additional paperwork. For the period of transitioning, the Act explicitly allows the use of gender-neutral given names and surnames.Malý průvodce matrikou pro TS osoby, Translidé.cz
As of July 2023, the MVČR or Internal Ministry of the Czech Republic, officially released a list of 4,000 gender-neutral names that can be used by citizens, particularly aimed toward transgender people needing a gender neutral name during their transition (or otherwise a name that does not require a legal gender change to use).
Dutch This is a list of the 20 most common names of which at least 10% are of the other sex. The most popular names are at the top.
Anne (to be exact: a boy's name in the West Frisian language, a girl's name in Dutch) Robin Willy Sam Nicky Marijn Dominique Luca Bo Jentje Jos Senna Jamie Ali Indy Dani Henny Ruth Eliza Jaimy
Finnish
Finnish law forbids giving a female name to a male child and a male name to a female child among other restrictions. Some names do exist that have been given to children of both genders. Such unisex names were more common in the first half of the 20th century. This is an incomplete list:
Many of these names are rare, foreign or neologisms; established names tend to be strongly sex-specific. Notably, a class of names that are derived from nature can be often used for either sex, for example: Aalto (wave), Halla (frost), Lumi (snow), Paju (willow), Ruska (fall colors), and Valo (light). Similarly, there are some (sometimes archaic) adjectives which carry no strong gender connotations, like Kaino (timid), Vieno (calm) or Lahja (a gift). Certain names can have unisex diminutives, such as Alex, which can be short for Aleksandra or Aleksanteri (or variants thereof).
French
Popular unisex names of French origin include:
There are also pairs of masculine and feminine names that have slightly different spellings but identical pronunciation, such as André / Andrée, Frédéric / Frédérique, René / Renée and Gabriel / Gabrielle. In France and French-speaking countries, it can happen for people to have a combination of both masculine and feminine given names, but most of these include "Marie", such as Jean-Marie, Marie-Jean, Marie-Pierre. Marie was a unisex name in medieval times; it is nowadays only female except for its presence in compound names. Notable examples of people with a combination of masculine and feminine given names are Jean-Marie Le Pen (male), Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles (male), Marie-Pierre Kœnig (male), and Marie-Pierre Leray (female). In the past, it was not unusual to give a child that was assigned male at birth the middle name Marie as a sign of religious devotion; the most notable example is that of François Maurice Marie Mitterrand.
European royals often bear the name Marie, the French form of Maria, in their names. Prince Amedeo of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este (Amedeo Marie Joseph Carl Pierre Philippe Paola Marcus), Prince Jean of Luxembourg (Jean Félix Marie Guillaume), and Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (Jean Benoît Guillaume Robert Antoine Louis Marie Adolphe Marc) are examples of male royals who bear Marie in their names.
German