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America's Top Unisex Baby Names...
Jordan is still America's top unisex baby name, according to a brand new study by the baby names website Baby Names Garden. It is the second study by Baby Names Garden to examine the popularity of unisex baby names in the United States, and is based on the latest data available, the 2007 statistics from the U.S. Social Security Administration.
The name Jordan for girls slipped a bit in popularity over the last couple of years, to # 100, but Jordan is still the only name in America to be a top 100 choice for both boys and girls. (It is # 45 in popularity among boys). The top ten unisex baby names, after Jordan, are Riley, Alexis, Angel, Jayden, Peyton, Hayden, Avery, Taylor, and Cameron.
Four new names have become androgynous since 2005, which was the year reported in Baby Names Garden's first study. The newly-minted unisex baby names are Emery, Jaylen, Kamryn, and Lyric.
On the other hand, nine names have dropped their unisex status over the same period. Campbell, Guadalupe, Kennedy, Shannon, and Shea are now clearly favored as girls' names, while Ashton, Devin, Devon, and Drew are clearly boys' names. The accepted wisdom that eventually unisex names shift to girls' names, while still generally true, appears to be less so today. When boys and girls fight over a name, so to speak, there are plenty of occasions when the boys win out.
Since about 1995 there has been a downward trend in the number of unisex baby names, and this trend is confirmed in the latest study. As of 2007, a total of 59 names out of the top 1000 U.S. names are unisex. (The Baby Names Garden study defines a name as unisex if it appears as both a boy's name and a girl's name in the Social Security Administration's annual Top 1000 Most Popular Names). Since there were 64 unisex baby names in the year 2005, this represents a decline of five names. This continues the long-term trend, when the decade from 1995 to 2005 saw a drop of more than 20% in the number of unisex baby names.
One remarkable aspect of unisex baby names is the way variant spellings of a name affect its gender. Frequently, the exact variant spelling will determine whether or not a name is unisex. For example, Reese is a unisex name, but its alternate spelling, Reece, is distinctly male. Bailey is likewise a unisex name, but the variable Baylee is clearly female. Ariel is a unisex name, but Arielle is female. But this is not always the case -- the names Riley and Rylee are both unisex names.
And the baby name with the largest number of unisex variants? That's Jayden, which comes in a total of five variable spellings, including Jayden, Jaden, Jadyn, Jaiden, and Jaidyn. Every one of those variants of Jayden is a bona fide unisex baby name. And with the latest data from New York City showing Jayden on its way to becoming one of the most popular baby names in America, the day may be close at hand when unisex baby names are really back in vogue.
Neil Street is co-publisher of Baby Names Garden, a leading website devoted to baby names writes frequently about topics like unisex baby name trends.
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