Actually Unisex Names

I’ve been thinking about this lately and I’m wondering what you guys can come up with! What are some legitimately unisex names? Now there are rules:

  1. It must be historically a personal name. No surnames, no place names, no words.
  2. No nicknames.
  3. Variants that are pronounced the same (like [name]Rene[/name] and [name]Renee[/name]) or names that are unrelated but pronounced the same are acceptable.
  4. It cannot be a name that was formerly one gender and has crossed over- no boys names on girls. It CAN, however, be a name that is both a feminine and masculine variant of a name. So [name]Evelyn[/name] is acceptable ([name]Evelina[/name]) but [name]Meredith[/name] is not.

So far, the only ones I’ve come up with are [name]Micaiah[/name] (related to [name]Micah[/name] and used in the Old Testament on both men and women), [name]Rosario[/name] (Masculine in Italian and feminine in Spanish), [name]Noa/name, and [name]Alison[/name]/[name]Allison[/name] (with one l, a variant of [name]Alice[/name], and with two, a “son of” name).

What about [name]Aaron[/name] & [name]Erin[/name]?

I’m a little confused about the rules, but immediately I thought of
[name]Francis[/name]/[name]Frances[/name]

[name]Vivian[/name], [name]Evelyn[/name], [name]Jocelyn[/name], and [name]Esme[/name] were all legitimate male names before they became associated with women. Is this considered boys names used for girls?
What about names that were originally surnames? Seems like they could go either way since they aren’t inherently male or female first names.

Re [name]Aaron[/name] and [name]Erin[/name] - I grew up in NY but went to college in VA. It confused me to end that ppl pronounced “[name]Aaron[/name]” the same as “[name]Erin[/name]” and “[name]Kerry[/name]” the same as “[name]Carey[/name]”. Sadly that means [name]Aaron[/name] is now off the list for me!

Other unisex names - not sure if these meet your criteria:
[name]Sasha[/name]
[name]Andrea[/name] (it’s a male name in [name]Italy[/name])
[name]Nicola[/name] (ditto)
[name]Lee[/name]
[name]Noah[/name]/[name]Noa[/name] (a legitimate Hebrew female name)

Okay so the rules are, no variant spellings since they’re pronounced the same, [name]Aaron[/name]/[name]Erin[/name], [name]Rene[/name]/[name]Renee[/name] or no names that were male but are now used for girls, [name]Carter[/name], [name]Avery[/name], [name]Luca[/name] and no nicknames?
To me, the only true ‘unisex’ names aren’t really what I’d consider names at all (even if they sound like they belong to one gender or another). Places, objects, colors, gems, verbs.

[name]River[/name]
[name]Jordan[/name] - I believe this was used first as a name for the river in Palestine. Then, it was used as a name probably because it appeared in the Bible.
[name]Chase[/name] - [name]Even[/name] if this annoys me.
[name]Chance[/name] - Same.
[name]Angel[/name]
[name]Justice[/name]
[name]Liberty[/name]
[[name]Robin[/name]] - I separate this because it is traditionally a male name, as a variant of [name]Robert[/name] Medieval times but is also the name of a bird in [name]America[/name].
[name]Azure[/name]
[name]Onyx[/name]
[name]Stone[/name]

Sorry for the confusion! I’ve revised the rules. Hopefully that clears it up.

Who can forget [name]Terry[/name] and [name]Pat[/name] from [name]Saturday[/name] [name]Night[/name] Life???!!!

Some others… [name]Stirling[/name]/[name]Sterling[/name], [name]Leslie[/name], [name]Ashley[/name], [name]Lindsey[/name]…

Some cultures have many names that are traditional for both genders.

There are unisex names in French, but this is often due to how the names are transcribed. For example, [name]Camille[/name] is the French form of both [name]Camilla[/name] and its male form Camillus.

Turkish is one fine example. They have many unisex names in Turkey, such as Aytac, Bulent, [name]Deniz[/name], Derya, [name]Nur[/name], Suat, Yucel, and [name]Zafer[/name]. However, some are used more for one gender than the other. For example, Bulent is more commonly a masculine name, but there are women with the name.

Japan also has unisex names. Examples include: [name]Akira[/name], [name]Hikaru[/name], Kaede, Kaoru, [name]Michi[/name], [name]Sora[/name], [name]Yoshi[/name], and [name]Yuki[/name]. Again, some are more common for one gender (example: [name]Yuki[/name] is more common for girls).

A lot of Chinese names can have multiple meanings due to the Chinese alphabet. For example, the name Li has several meanings: some meanings are masculine, some are feminine, and some are neutral.