Most Gender-Neutral Baby Names
Names used nearly equally for boys and girls, with at least 5,000 total uses for each.
What This Ranking Tells Us
Gender-neutral names represent a growing trend in American naming. A 100% balance score means the name is used exactly equally for boys and girls. These names have at least 5,000 recorded uses for each sex to ensure statistical significance. Many gender-neutral names originated as surnames (Emerson, Kerry, Landry) or place names (Jordan, Dakota). The trend has accelerated in recent years as parents increasingly choose names that do not signal gender.
What the Data Says About This Ranking
This ranking lists 50 names drawn from the Social Security Administration's baby-name archive, filtered and sorted by balance %. The #1 entry is Emerson with a balance % of 98.9%, followed by Landry at 98.5% and Kerry at 97.5%. The bottom of the list, Emory (52.9%), helps define the cutoff qualifying a name for inclusion here. Every name in this ranking meets the SSA's five-occurrence minimum threshold for public disclosure, so private rare names are excluded from consideration.
Across all 50 ranked entries, the average balance % is 76.0%, giving a statistical center of gravity for what "popular" means in this specific ranking context. Gender-neutral names represent a growing trend in American naming. Rankings of this type are sensitive to how the underlying data is cut: a top-50 list reflects different signals than a top-500 list, and combining spelling variants (Sophia + Sofia) versus keeping them separate — as the SSA does — produces materially different orderings. The rankings displayed here use the SSA's raw spelling-specific data without combining variants.
Because the SSA updates its baby-name files annually (typically each May), this ranking can shift year over year as new birth cohorts are added and historical revisions are applied. Names that appear to be rising or falling should be interpreted against the five-year-minimum sample sizes SSA requires; short-term movement on a single-year basis can be noisy. Source: Social Security Administration, Baby Names Data (cumulative since 1880). This page summarizes publicly released SSA data and is provided for research and informational purposes only; it is not intended as personal naming advice or a recommendation of any specific name for a given child.
| # | Name | Balance % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emerson | 98.9% |
| 2 | Landry | 98.5% |
| 3 | Kerry | 97.5% |
| 4 | Briar | 95.6% |
| 5 | Robbie | 94.7% |
| 6 | Justice | 94.4% |
| 7 | Kris | 94.4% |
| 8 | Elisha | 93.3% |
| 9 | Palmer | 89.2% |
| 10 | Jaylin | 88.3% |
| 11 | Frankie | 87.1% |
| 12 | Arden | 87.0% |
| 13 | Jackie | 86.5% |
| 14 | Campbell | 86.1% |
| 15 | Azariah | 85.3% |
| 16 | Finley | 82.9% |
| 17 | Lavon | 81.2% |
| 18 | Leighton | 79.9% |
| 19 | Oakley | 79.6% |
| 20 | Alva | 78.7% |
| 21 | Santana | 78.0% |
| 22 | Armani | 77.7% |
| 23 | Mckinley | 76.8% |
| 24 | Stevie | 76.3% |
| 25 | Carey | 75.6% |
| 26 | Riley | 75.2% |
| 27 | Harley | 75.1% |
| 28 | Devyn | 73.0% |
| 29 | Quinn | 72.9% |
| 30 | Jaime | 70.4% |
| 31 | Blair | 69.6% |
| 32 | Lennon | 69.0% |
| 33 | Amari | 68.3% |
| 34 | Shea | 68.2% |
| 35 | Casey | 67.4% |
| 36 | Remy | 67.3% |
| 37 | Lavern | 67.1% |
| 38 | Pat | 66.6% |
| 39 | Phoenix | 65.8% |
| 40 | Skyler | 65.7% |
| 41 | Jessie | 65.5% |
| 42 | Gale | 62.4% |
| 43 | Ivory | 62.2% |
| 44 | Peyton | 60.0% |
| 45 | Shiloh | 58.4% |
| 46 | Sutton | 57.7% |
| 47 | Jody | 56.5% |
| 48 | Kendall | 53.6% |
| 49 | Milan | 53.5% |
| 50 | Emory | 52.9% |
Source: Social Security Administration, Baby Names Data (cumulative since 1880) — U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications (ssa.gov).
Source: SSA Baby Names Methodology — names with fewer than 5 annual occurrences are excluded to protect privacy.
Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a name gender-neutral?
A truly gender-neutral name is used in roughly equal numbers for both sexes over time. Many names that seem gender-neutral actually lean heavily one direction — for example, Ashley was originally a boy name but is now 95%+ female. The names on this list maintain a balance of at least 80-99% between the sexes, making them genuinely ambiguous.
Are gender-neutral names becoming more popular?
Yes. The percentage of babies receiving gender-neutral names has increased steadily since the 1990s. Parents cite reasons including avoiding gender bias in hiring and academic settings, allowing children to define their own identity, and aesthetic preference. However, some names that start neutral tend to drift toward one sex over time.
Why do some names shift from gender-neutral to gendered?
This is called the gender shift phenomenon. When a traditionally male name begins gaining popularity for girls (Lindsay, Ashley, Whitney), parents of boys tend to abandon it within a generation. The reverse rarely happens — names that become popular for boys almost never shift to girls. Researchers believe this reflects asymmetric gender norms.
Nearby Rankings
Compare top two: Emerson vs Landry → or pick any two names →
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.