Gender-Free Names

English Speaking, North American


This is an effort to collect relatively common gender-free first names, as used in English speaking North America. Gender-free names are those that are commonly used by both men and women. I am doing this is be better able to construct examples using as gender-free names as possible.

It seems that some names are becoming more gender specific in North America. For example, Leslie was not uncommon as a male name until the last few years; for example, the male actor "Leslie Howard." Likewise, Carol was not too unusual; for example, the male actor "Carol O Connor." Other names, such as "Ashley" have also made the transition to primarily a female name. Conversely, some names have went from gender specific to gender-free, for example, "Ryan."

Non-English speaking countries have a variety of rules that are not practiced in English speaking North America. I have not tried to capture them. For example, in Germany, some males have the female name "Maria" as part of a compound name, including a very well known author (Erich MariaRemarque). In Spanish-speaking countries, Jesús is an exclusively male name; it can be part of a female composite name, such as "María Jesús". The opposite is valid for María: it is used as a male name only as part of a composite name such as "José María" or "Juan María".

I am sure that there are many more than I have listed. If you have more, I would appreciate it if you would email them to me at mazlack@uc.edu

Constraints on the gender free names sought:


Gender free North American names so far discovered:


Names not often used for both genders in North America; but are elsewhere:


last modified: 10 February 2008