it seems girls can pull freely from the boys’ names category, but as soon as a unisex name tips in ratio to girls no parent wants to give it to a boy anymore. “ashley”, for instance, which is a perfectly fine name for a boy and has the cool nn ash but fell off a cliff lately for boys b/c of female use.
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[name_u]Charlie[/name_u]? I don’t think its popularity for girls is deterring many parents from using it for boys.
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charlie’s a nickname, though, isn’t it? it would be different if there were lots of girls named charles.
ah. all those names are quite new, though, aren’t they? or, newly used for girls.
hazel used to be unisex, but you would never think it now. in a hundred years’ time, it’ll be as sage is today. and yes… it being the natural shortening of a clunky biblical name, i know quite a bit about the name hazel >_>
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sorry for being such a noob: meant to @ the above.
^^ see above.
it’s not that i’m against the use of unisex names, only i’m not sure they exist other than in a sort of quantum state o_o
Not if it’s on the birth certificate?
It’s funny you use the example of [name_u]Ashley[/name_u] as it’s on my list of boys names and I wouldn’t think twice about giving the name to a son!
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only because i knew an ashley who was embarrassed about it 
oh golly, i do not understand people who write nicknames on the birth certificate. you can always use a nickname in your daily life and have a proper name on the birth certificate, but not the other way around if you don’t want to get into a legal fix at some point along the line.
i know a girl called ellie whose parents chose to name her ellie and not eleanor so she would go by ellie. anyway, in daily life she goes by elle.
^^ ugh i am such a noob. a supreme noob. has there ever been a noob as noobish as i? i doubt it.
^^ see above about quantum states >_>
Look at the statistics. 50/50 split names are truly unisex.
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Yes, @hazelelponi you might find this blog interesting.
my question was if they wouldn’t change within the baby’s lifetime — see, the parents of those rileys.
golly — i didn’t quite know it could be done. truly, we live in a post-gender world
[name_m]Even[/name_m] if their name becomes 100% opposite gender in the future, for their generation it will always be gender neutral so… 
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that’s very true. i’d imagine a sixty year old woman would not blink to see a male shirley or leslie.
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i definitely think there are some names that are completely gender neutral, alex to me is one of them
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truthfully, i think we are at a turning point in naming history wherein more and more names will become gender neutral, and be used evenly for boys and girls. arlo, harlow, and marlowe are exploding in popularity on both sides, names like finn & wilder, nature names— sage, sky & juniper most notably. nickname names like bowie, iggy, ozzy and indy. mini multicultural names— koa, noa, etc. word names like brave & merit. even on nameberry, we are leaning so much more towards gender neutral names than i have ever seen before, and i think that says a lot about where we are as a world culture — which is so neat :,)
so to answer your question, yes. there are many “truly unisex” names, and i think they’ll continue to rise in popularity until they become a well assimilated part of “normal.”
today, honestly riley, spellings et al. is the truest gender neutral name. i have seen 15 to 20 students named riley/ryley/ryleigh/rylie and i’d say there’s a pretty even b/g/nb split.
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I think it’s all about perception. As long as people have opinions, there will never be a name that is truly 100% unisex. For example, I find Kit to be an even 50/50, but my mom thinks kit is weird on a boy. This does not, however, make these names unusable for a given gender.