Saturday, September 15, 2018

The 90s Called.....(Part 2)

Time for another round of childhood nostalgia, this time looking at names that have changed gender.

First up, the names (from 2017's Top 1500) that have changed most strongly from masculine to feminine:
  1. Emerson
  2. Monroe
  3. Collins
  4. Reese
  5. Finley
  6. Landry
  7. Leighton
  8. Hensley
  9. Kairi
  10. Henley
  11. Charlie
  12. Quinn
  13. Arya
  14. Dakota
  15. Justice
  16. Lennon
  17. Palmer
  18. Skyler
  19. Briar
  20. Riley
This isn't in order of popularity, but in order of biggest gender-swap. Emerson, for instance, went from a ratio of 114 boys for every girl to about 3 girls to every 2 boys; Reese from 18 boys per girl to 5 girls per boy; Briar from 3 boys per girl to 2 girls per boy.
[all of my calculations are based on changes in percentages, which weights the results toward more popular names. So above, Hensley goes from 6 boys/girl to 26 girls/boy, which seems to be a much larger shift than Leighton, which goes from 7 boys/girl to 3 girls/boy. However, Leighton, given to 115 boys in 1992, was much more popular than Hensley, which was only given to 8]

Next, the names that have made the largest shifts from boy --> unisex (but are still more common on boys):
  1. Reece
  2. Dylan
  3. Ryan
  4. Elliot
  5. Elliott
  6. Kingsley
  7. Spencer
  8. Blake
  9. Parker
  10. Cameron
  11. Baylor
  12. Rylan
  13. Quincy
  14. Drew
  15. Lennox
  16. Sawyer
  17. Hayden
  18. Remington
  19. Karter
  20. Denver
Reece had the largest change of any name, going from 206 boys per girl to only 3 boys per girl. Ryan, easily the most common of these names in 1992, dropped from 68 boys per girl to 9 boys per girl. 

While there are a lot fewer of them (and they were all a lot less common to start with), there are quite a few names that went from feminine --> masculine. Here are the ones that shifted most:
  1. Yael
  2. Kallen
  3. Ayan
  4. Santana
  5. Brecken
  6. Joan
  7. Kyrie
  8. Kyrin
  9. Karsen
  10. Tristin
  11. Carsen
  12. Lian
  13. Elisha
  14. Amari
  15. Callan
  16. Onyx
  17. Mikah
  18. Kamari
  19. Jensen
  20. Ashton
The biggest girl-to-boy shift, Yael, given to 61 girls in 1992 and not on the boys' list at all, was given to 197 boys and 116 girls last year. Elisha (presumably seen more as an Alicia knockoff in 1992, not a Biblical prophet) went neatly from 2 girls per boy to 2 boys per girl. Joan I again assume has gained usage more as a Catalan boys' name than as an "outdated" English girls' name. 

There were also a few girls' names that have made strides toward being unisex (well, again, in most cases):
  1. Lyric
  2. Karsyn
  3. Tatum
  4. Kelly
  5. Alexis
  6. Aspen
  7. Ariel
  8. Wren
  9. Eden
  10. Jael
  11. Morgan
  12. Jamie
  13. Robin
  14. Shea
Alexis, the most common of these in 1992, has dropped from about 11 girls per boy to about 3 girls per boy (mostly, I assume, to it falling out of fashion as an English girls' name, but remaining popular as a Spanish boys' name). 
Interestingly, Jamie and Robin, both names "stolen" in previous generations, were both about 4x most common for girls in 1992, but are now both more popular by a ratio of only 3 girls for every 2 boys. 
There is hope for reclamation yet. ;)

If you want to see the whole list of gender-shifts, it is here, on Google Sheets

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