Swipe for 1980-1999, 1960-1979, and why Alex and Taylor aren't on the other charts.
Blog post with code, more charts, analysis, and pretty tables: https://nameplay.org/blog/most-non-binary-gender-neutral-names
Design is based on a post by Randy Olson from 11 years ago. Yeah, this sub has been around for a while. All code and analysis are original.
Includes names with at least 5k total births across both genders in the Social Security Administration baby names data during each chart's time period. Names are ranked using a diversity index, which subtracts each gender's squared proportion of births from 1. This metric is called the Simpson Index in ecology and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index in economics.
This visualization focuses on the names with the most non-binary gender distribution in the baby name data, NOT the most common names considered unisex.
by aar0nbecker
13 Comments
Data Source: [Social Security Administration full baby names data set](https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html) (all names given to >5 same-sex babies in a year)
Tools:
* Analysis: Jupyter, Python, polars
* Visualization: matplotlib, aquarel (theming)
Blog post from Jupyter Notebook with all code: https://nameplay.org/blog/most-non-binary-gender-neutral-names
I’m surprised so many boys are being named Dominique, I have never seen that before
I am surprised the name Raven is not on here. I think its a beautiful name that can be used for either gender.
Anticipate A drop off in Skyler over the next 25 year period.
Chris, Sam, and Alex in the last chart maybe don’t seem to be including the full names that get shortened to it.
e.g. Samuel vs Samantha -> both often shortened to ‘Sam’
and for Chris, usually Kris* -> still pronounced ‘Chris’
Alexis, Alexa -> Alex
etc
As a foreigner some of these are wild. Nearly 50/50 split of boys and girls named Angel? Sage, Jean?
Laverne, Jackie, Beverly, and Evelyne would like a word…
Jaylin is interesting. The story I’d always heard touted was that that name didn’t exist before NBA star Jalen Rose was born. He was on TV in the 90s and suddenly a bunch of other Jalen-esque named kids started popping up a decade or two later (it IS a pretty cool name.)
Last years NBA champions had not one, but TWO dudes named some variation of “Jalen Williams” on the team.
Anyway, surprised it’s like half girls if that story was true.
That last slide’s “despite what you may think”, it’s still normal to call girls Chris, Sam and Alex due to Christine/a, Samantha and Alexandra..
Interesting, the staying power of Marion. It was the original name of John Wayne (Marion Morrison).
Tommie *and* Lee. How fitting
The letter “y” getting a lot of playtime on this list
Most of the “least androgynous” ones are nicknames. I wonder the sex breakdown of people *who go by Alex / Chris* regardless of full government name (Alexander / ra, Christopher / ine.)