# Quick: what's the first evenly unisex name that pops to mind? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 29, 2017, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141 "2017-10-29T15:10:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/81 "2017-10-30T20:01:48Z")
Well, if you’re asking for the first one that comes to mind, then it’s Robin. Having read through the answers, I think there are some answers that are more thoroughly unisex (Jamie is probably the best one, Alex, Taylor, and Jordan are all good ones), but the first evenly unisex name to pop into my mind was Robin. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/82 "2017-10-30T20:09:05Z")
I have a friend who named her son Dylan, which I think occasionally gets used for girls as well. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/83 "2017-10-30T20:31:12Z")
Robin was the first one that came into my head, and as has been mentioned I don’t think of things like Pat, Chris, or Alex truly unisex in the same way that Robin is. While it might not be a popular boy’s name any more, there are a lot of famous male Robins. I’ll also note that I went to a HS that at one point had both a boy and a girl named Morgan. But I only remembered that after someone else mentioned the name. Additionally, both of my parents’ middle names were originally Lynn. It definitely ended up as my middle name as well, well after the time period that Lynn as a boy’s name was even close to popular. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/84 "2017-10-30T20:41:10Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > Imma be honest here, when I drafted my OP, I expected someone would promptly post a YouTube link to the SNL sketch. > > I feel … vaguely disappointed. > > tip-tapping away by phone, but why would you care? Yeah, Pat was the first one that popped into my brain. Most definitely because of SNL. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/85 "2017-10-30T21:01:32Z")
> [@Atomic\_Alex](#): > > Unisex names? Well I have to vote for ‘Bob’, obviously. Unisex, not Palindromes. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/86 "2017-10-30T21:27:56Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Unisex, not Palindromes. I know both men and women who have gone by ‘Bob’, short for Robert or Roberta. But it was kind of a tongue in cheek reply… ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/87 "2017-10-30T21:33:20Z")
My thought was Taylor. But Chris is a better choice. > [@elfkin477](#): > > As for only **hearing** the name, Don/Dawn and Aaron/Erin both present problems in northeastern US accents so I wouldn’t be surprised to then meet a person of either gender when someone says “Hey, I’m going to introduce you to-”. Don and Dawn are pronounced exactly the same, and Aaron and Erin are nearly (but not quite) identical. Not to this NE person. Don=cot, Dawn=caught Aaron=parrot Erin=penny ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/88 "2017-10-30T21:49:50Z")
Chris/Kris It’s the common nickname for a large number of gendered names. If I just heard it, I’d have very little idea of which gender the person was. If I saw it spelled, I would think Chris with a “Ch” is slightly more likely to be male, while Kris with a “K” is slightly more likely to be female, but there are enough of both genders with both spellings that it’s pretty hard to tell. After that, Pat, Alex, Jess(i)e, Jaime, . A lot of “boys’ names” have become “girls’ names,” so if I know how old the “Jordan” or “Robin” or “Taylor” in question are, I don’t think of the names as unisex. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/89 "2017-10-30T22:46:40Z")
Evelyn ( with a long eee sound) used to a mans name. We have used the name Lynn for both sexes is our family. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/90 "2017-10-30T22:55:56Z")
Chris. It’s my wife’s name. Though, hers is short for “Christiane,” which is far less common than Christine / Christopher. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/91 "2017-10-30T23:06:23Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Evelyn ( with a long eee sound) used to a mans name. We have used the name Lynn for both sexes is our family. For that matter, Shirley used to be a man’s name. Charlotte Bronte wrote a book titled _Shirley_ in 1849 about a girl who’d been given a boy’s name, because her father really wanted a boy when she was born, and how this affected her. It produced a fad for naming girls “Shirley,” and once Shirley Temple became famous, it was never a man’s name again. Shirley Temple turned it from a mostly girl’s name that sounded kinda tomboyish, and was still sometimes given to boys (like Robin in the US now), to a really girly-girlish name the no one would ever give their son, any more than they’d name a son “Melinda,” or “Sarah.” The memoirist and journalist Vera Brittain is the mother of Shirley Williams, MP (and Baroness), and when Brittain describes her daughter’s birth, she says she named her after the Bronte character, because she wanted her to have a “scrappy” sort of name to live up to. Williams was born in 1930, and Temple made her first vehicle in 1934. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/92 "2017-10-30T23:11:49Z")
Another vote for Jordan. I think my acquaintances named Jordan are split exactly 50/50. Then there’s Alexis. In an English-speaking country, I think girl, anybody else I’d assume boy first. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/93 "2017-10-30T23:29:17Z")
Shirley is the name of one of Anne and Gilbert’s sons in the Anne of Green Gables series. (Anne’s maiden name was Shirley.) As for Evelyn being both a man’s and a woman’s name, that’s a clue in the following mystery… Mrs. McGinty’s Dead, by Agatha Christie ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2017, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/94 "2017-10-30T23:39:04Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Maybe it’s a regional thing, but the ratio of males named Chris vs. females named Chris that I’ve met in my life has to be at least 20 to 1, probably more. When I was at school it was about 50/50. The most common male name was David (you can date me from that statistic if you want), but the total Chris’s outnumbered the David’s. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/95 "2017-10-31T01:05:03Z")
I just thought of another couple. Jody and Toby. I think Jody was trending towards girls, but then _Family Affair_ gave pop culture a boy Jody. I know several Jewish women who go by Toby. Their full name is Tovah, and in Hebrew the letter that makes the V sound is a letter that can make a V or a B sound, depending on where it is in the word, and what the following or preceding letter is. “Tovah” in Hebrew is the feminine form of the word “good.” I don’t think I’ve known I gentile woman named Toby, but I really have known a lot of Jewish women called that, and the number of gentile men I’ve known named Toby is pretty few. I don’t know a Jewish man called that. I think I’ve actually known more boy dogs named Toby than boy humans. I did go to intermediate school with a kid whose parents had unfathomably named him “Toby Dick.” (Dick was his last name.) ---
**Author:** ![2Bits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e95f7d/32.png) [@2Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2Bits)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/96 "2017-10-31T19:52:21Z")
Sandy! ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/97 "2017-10-31T19:58:08Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Yes, Pat, but I think we’ve been primed to think that. 😉 That doesn’t make it not count. Even if it weren’t a unisex comical character, it’d still be my go-to…I know dozens of female Pats and at least six male Pats. Never met a female Kelly or a male Leslie. But that’s just me. I’m sure a lot of our Dopers can tell you their first grade teacher was a man named Ashley, since it was pretty common in 1903. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/98 "2017-10-31T20:02:31Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Never met a female Kelly or a male Leslie. Interesting! I can remember one male Kelly and many women named Kelly. Cheers: Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly… ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/99 "2017-10-31T20:15:01Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I know several Jewish women who go by Toby. Their full name is Tovah, and in Hebrew the letter that makes the V sound is a letter that can make a V or a B sound, depending on where it is in the word, and what the following or preceding letter is. “Tovah” in Hebrew is the feminine form of the word “good.” I’ve learned something today! 🙂 One of my favorite musicians is a woman named Toby Lightman. I’d always wondered about her name, but I do know that she’s Jewish, so it now makes sense! ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141/100 "2017-10-31T21:03:40Z")
Homo-phonically, Joe and Jo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-whats-the-first-evenly-unisex-name-that-pops-to-mind/800141.md?page=6)