Unisex Names
on the Rise

What counts as a unisex name?

Some names belong to everyone. A unisex name is one that families give to both boys and girls, and here a name counts when the less common gender makes up at least 10% of the babies who get it. When the split is close to even, with neither gender above 65%, we call the name balanced.

Some of these names have always been shared. Others drifted across as fashions changed. The data shows both stories, and this page follows the ones that are moving now.

How popularity has changed

In 1985, about 3 in 100 American babies had a name shared by boys and girls. By 1995 it was more than 5 in 100, and it hovered around 5 for two decades. After 2015 it climbed again, to a high of about 6.5 in 100 in 2022.

The evenly split names tell a quieter story. They stayed near 1 in 100 for three decades and reached about 1.7 in 100 by 2022, so the move toward truly even names is mostly recent. Among the most-used risers, the best placed in 2000 ranked number 763 of all baby names. Today all five sit inside the top 200.

Top unisex names on the rise

These five are the most-used names that have grown by 25% or more since 2015. Rowan leads with 6,452 babies in 2025, up 130% in ten years. You may well meet more of them on the playground.

Each card shows how far the name has climbed in overall rank, with boys and girls added together. A name’s own page shows the two genders separately, so its numbers can differ. Cards marked “View page” already have their own page; the rest are on the way. The full list of 19 follows.

All 19 rising unisex names

Source: US Social Security Administration, national baby name data, 2015–2025. Calculation: NameMochi (see how this list is built).

Still popular, but steady or cooling

Not every unisex name is on the way up. The twelve below are still given to thousands of babies each year, yet 11 of them have lost ground since 2015. Logan, the most-used of them in 2015, is down 54%, though 6,351 families still chose it in 2025.

A name that is cooling is not a name that is gone. For many parents, one that is familiar but less crowded can be exactly the right fit.

Source: US Social Security Administration, national baby name data, 2015–2025. Calculation: NameMochi (see how this list is built).

Who is choosing these names, boys or girls?

Not every rising name is shared evenly. Of the 19 names that grew, 8 are given mostly to girls (Eden, Oakley and Sage), 6 mostly to boys (Rowan, River and Amari), and 5 are close to an even split (Charlie, Tatum, Rory, Sutton and Shiloh).

If you want a name that fits a boy or a girl equally well, the even-split group is the best place to start. Tatum comes closest, with 49% girls and 51% boys. If you love a name’s rise but want a clearer lean, the other two groups give you plenty to choose from.

What the rising names have in common

Take the names we have written up in full and say them out loud: Wren, Rowan, Sage, River. Each one is a tiny picture. A wren is a small songbird with a loud and often complex song, and old European stories crowned it king of the birds after it hid in an eagle’s feathers and flew higher still. A rowan is the tree whose berries turn from green to scarlet as summer slips into autumn, and Scottish farmers once carried its branches into the cowshed each May to protect their cattle. Sage is the grey-green herb on the kitchen shelf, and also the word for someone wise. River is water, always on its way somewhere.

Maybe that is the quiet charm. A name this short paints its picture in a single breath, and a parent can see it before another word is said. Not every riser comes from nature, of course. Charlie, Eden and Tatum are not nature words at all, yet they share the same short, friendly sound. The numbers agree: the names that grew average 5.1 letters, against 5.7 for the unisex names that fell, and 12 of the 19 risers have five letters or fewer.

They also began small. The typical riser had about 1,000 babies in 2015 and has since passed 2,500, so a name that was rare a decade ago can still feel like a find. And sometimes a story gives a name a push. In 1999, 59 baby girls in the United States were named Rory. Gilmore Girls premiered in October 2000, and by 2003 the number was 234. The timing lines up.

It is easy to imagine a family reading this list and stopping at one name: short, simple, a little uncommon, and right for a boy or a girl. If that sounds like you, start here.

Before you choose one of these names

A name that looks perfect on a list still has to live in the real world. Here are four small tests to try before you decide.

• Check the spelling you will actually write. In 2025, Rowan was spelled Rowen for 772 babies and Rowyn for 480, and Sage became Saige for 699. None of these is wrong, but the one you pick is the one every form and name tag will print for years.
• Listen for the lean. Some risers go mostly to one gender: Remi and Eden to girls about 86% of the time, Rowan to boys about 81%. If you want a name that feels neutral to everyone, look near the even split, with names like Charlie, Tatum and Rory.
• Decide how rare you want it to stay. The more a name climbs, the more classmates it may find, and a few of the risers have already passed their peak. A name that is rising fast today may feel a little less new in a few years. Only you can say whether that matters.
• Say it out loud with your surname. A short name like Wren or Rory leaves room for a longer middle name, and a longer name sits comfortably beside a short one. The right one is usually the one you stop noticing.

Questions parents ask about unisex names