Androgynous names

Saturday Night Live used to have a regular skit involving a character called Androgynous Pat. Pat’s hapless subordinate was constantly trying to figure out whether Pat was male or female, without success. I thought it would be fun to see which names are still androgynous and which new names that weren’t before are now. I compared census baby names data from 1947 and 2016. To be androgynous for my purposes the ratio between the sexes could not exceed 5 to 1. Here are top 30 names from each period ordered by the total number of babies with that name that year.

1947 2016
Willie Avery
Lynn Riley
Leslie Parker
Lee Sawyer
Jackie Peyton
Marion Quinn
Johnnie Blake
Pat Hayden
Jessie Alexis
Jan Rowan
Billie Charlie
Dana Emerson
Robin Finley
Chris River
Gale Ariel
Frankie Elliot
Tommie Eden
Guadalupe Elliott
Kerry Dakota
Carroll Reese
Kim Remington
Laverne Amari
Mickey Phoenix
Sammie Harley
Gerry Rylan
Merle Dallas
Rene Skyler
Shelby Sage
Lupe Ellis
Lauren Rory

Most of these were not very balanced in the ratio of male to female. Among the top 30 of 1947, the most balanced were Leslie (almost exactly 1-to-1), Jessie, Jackie and Frankie. In 2016 it was Charlie, Justice (just missed the top 30 at #31), River and Skyler.

Very few of the 1947 top 30 were still androgynous in 2016. The only ones to make the list at all (not necessarily in the top 30) for 2016 were  Jackie, Marion, Jessie, and Kerry. That doesn’t mean babies in 2016 were no longer being named with those names, only that the ratio had become greater than 5-to-1. Conversely, the only two names in the top 30 androgynous names of 2016 that made the 1947 list at all were Eden and Rory.

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