I’ve been looking more in-depth at state SSA statistics in my area, and I’m particularly interested in unisex names, since I love them so much but most people are scared off by them… I really wouldn’t want my son to be tortured because of his unisex name, but I really love the name and would like to be able to use it if I still love it that much when I actually do adopt.
At the moment, [name]Bailey[/name]'s the unisex name I’m most concerned about. I love [name]Avery[/name], too, but it has family significance, and literary significance for me, and I believe it’s in the top 300 for boys, so I’m not terribly concerned about that. However, [name]Bailey[/name] ranks nationally at 995 for boys and at 78 for girls, which is a huge difference, imo.
I looked at the statistics today, though, and in my state, [name]Bailey[/name] ranks at number 101 for girls, with 107 births. For boys, it ranks at number 647 with 11 births. 107 and 11 is still a fairly large difference, but it’s a much smaller difference, and [name]Bailey[/name]'s ranking jumps over 300 spots in my state. I did a bit of math, and it averages that less than 2 Baileys (girls) would be born in each county in my state, so there would be approximately one girl [name]Bailey[/name] for every 9-10 school districts in my county alone. There still are only 11 Baileys born in my state in the past year, but with this info, if you really loved [name]Bailey[/name] (like, top 3 material), and you knew this information, would [name]Bailey[/name] become more of a realistic consideration for you?
[name]Bailey[/name] hasn’t ever really not been an option for me–I’ve just been watching the statistics to see what happens nationally. But I got a bit excited about this, haha, and I’m curious if this will change anything. Would the odds be good enough for you to use a unisex name if these were the statistics for it in your area?
I’m not sure if this will sway any opinions, but the MNs I have picked out for [name]Bailey[/name] are all quite masculine ([name]Bailey[/name] [name]Elias[/name] [name]Charles[/name]) and have strong family ties–if [name]Bailey[/name] was a problem, he could have the options of going by [name]Lee[/name]/[name]Leo[/name], [name]Eli[/name], [name]Elias[/name], [name]Charles[/name], [name]Charlie[/name], [name]Beck[/name], etc.
Thanks, ladies!