Boy or girl Why Americans call children neutral names
'29.09.2018'
Source: Fox News
Royal, Charlie, Salem, Skyler, Justice or Oakley are universal and gender-neutral names for American babies that parents choose more than ever to embrace the possibility of gender flexibility and try to avoid sexism about the child's name.
The US Social Security Service annually releases a list of the most popular names for children, based on registered data on newborn babies, and also keeps track of the names that fall into the top ten, writes Fox News... According to observers, “bisexual” and “neutral” names have not yet taken the lead, but are quite widely represented on the lists of popular ones, especially among millennial parents.
Pop culture and respect for family or religious history are also important in choosing a name. But more and more names, parents also use the gender factor - more precisely, the absence of this factor as decisive for choosing a name.
“We chose Riley's neutral name for our daughter,” says Laurie Kinkler, a psychologist in San Antonio, Texas. “We knew her gender, but in our time gender is a long term and she has yet to decide.”
“Among all the difficulties faced by those who live outside the sex or feel like a representative of the opposite sex, there should not be a name, we did not want that. I like that she has options and she knows that we will accept her anyway, ”says the mother. Riley is now three years old.
Pamela Redmond Satran, co-author of “The Baby Name Bible,” and “Cool Names for Babies,” and author of baby name blogs and co-founder of Nameberry.com, which lists more than 50 names, says interest in uncovering potential gender flexibility is “important, but not the only reason”. Many people choose unisex names because they just like them or are meaningful to their family, but nonetheless raise children with a gender perspective.
Millennials aren't the only ones who give their kids neutral names. Kyle Goode grew up in the 50s and was one of five children as well as the only child with a gender cross-named. He was named after a musician whose work his father liked. As he grew up, Kyle met a woman named Jerry (usually the male name Gerald).
“When we introduce ourselves as Kyle and Jerry, almost everyone thinks I'm Jerry and she's Kyle,” he says.
45-year-old Kirsten Hammann and her husband, who live in the San Francisco Bay area, named their daughters Teegan and Sigrid. They consider both of these names to be gender neutral.
“Gender neutrality was not a topic of discussion with my husband, it was more inside me: knowing first-hand how often women face difficulties in many areas of life, I did not want a less or more feminine name to influence the way people perceive them ”, Says the woman.
Satran is sure that some neutral names do not relate to gender at all - for example, we are talking about choosing a name in honor of a geographical point (Dakota, Blue, Lake), or a name that can often be found as a surname (for example, Madison). For a long time, different spellings made it possible to determine gender in the case of names that sound the same: masculine Yves or feminine Eve for the name Yves.
In several countries, unisex names are prohibited by law - these are Portugal, Denmark and Iceland. In Germany, local registrars determine the acceptability of a name.
The tenth most popular female name in 2016, Harper, ranked 793rd among the names given to American boys this year.
The most popular names for girls were Emma, Olivia, Ava, Sophia, Isabella, Mia, Charlotte, Abigail and Emily. Noah leads the boys, then names such as Liam, William, Mason, James, Benjamin, Jacob, Michael, Elijah and Ethan are listed.
Nameberry analyzed data from the 2016 Social Security Administration of the Year, examining the 50 of the most popular androgynous names targeted at people with serious gender difficulties. 50 on 50% was the name Charlie, then Finley on 58% for girls and 42% for boys.
The name Skyler was in third place (54-46), Justice in fourth (52-48), and Royal in fifth (42-58). The top ten included Lennon (50-41), Oakley (52-48), Armani (46-54), Azaria (55-45) and Landry (53-47).
