Gender-neutral boy names
A name qualifies here only if it is in genuine current use in the United States for more than one gender. Sounding soft is not enough, and neither is being a surname; the register has to show both sides actually occupied.
- RowanROH-unIrish
Little red one, and also the rowan tree, whose berries stay on into winter. Used for both. The boys' side is #59 in the U.S.
- AveryAY-vuh-reeEnglish
Elf ruler, from an Old English name that spent several centuries as a surname first. Used for both, and now much more often given to girls than to boys.
- RileyRY-leeIrish
Two separate sources sit behind it: an Irish family name and an English rye clearing. Used for both, and the girls' side has been the larger one for a while.
- QuinnKWINIrish
Descendant of Conn, which is either chief or sense and wisdom. Used for both, having arrived as a boys' surname name and drifted toward girls.
- SawyerSAW-yerEnglish
One who saws timber into planks. Used for both, still mostly for boys, and carried into general use by Mark Twain rather than by any bearer.
- EmersonEM-er-sonEnglish
Son of Emery, so literally a boys' name by construction. Used for both anyway, and now more often for girls, which is a good demonstration of how little etymology decides.
- FinleyFIN-leeScottish
Fair-haired hero, from Gaelic Fionnlagh. Used for both in the U.S., with the girls' side the busier of the two.
- HaydenHAY-dinEnglish
From the hay valley: a stretch of ground that became a family name and then a first name. In steady use for both since the 1990s.
- ParkerPAR-kurEnglish
Keeper of a medieval hunting park. Used for both, still weighted toward boys, and one of the cleanest surname names to say.
- JordanJOR-dunHebrew
To flow down, to descend, from the river. Crusaders brought Jordan water home and the name with it. Used for both, with a shared peak in the 1990s.
- CameronKAM-er-unScottish
Crooked nose, a Highland clan byname nobody worries about any more. Used for both, mostly for boys, and #76 in the U.S.
- LoganLOH-gunScottish
Little hollow, from a place in Ayrshire. Used for both, strongly weighted toward boys, and #53 in the U.S.
- DylanDIL-unWelsh
Of the sea, or great tide; a sea god in the Mabinogi. Used for both, predominantly for boys, and #41 in the U.S.
- KaiKYSeveral origins
Sea in Hawaiian, triumph in Chinese, and a short form of several European names besides. Used for both, mostly for boys, and #93 in the U.S.
- AngelAYN-jel or AHN-helGreek
Messenger. Used for both in the United States, which surprises Spanish speakers, since Angel is unambiguously masculine in Spanish and Angela is the feminine. #67.
- RiverRIV-erEnglish
The noun, used straight. Used for both and rising on both sides, which is normal for nature words: they carry no grammatical gender to argue with.
- RemyREH-meeFrench
Traditionally read as oarsman, from the Latin name Remigius. Used for both, helped in America by a spelling that hides the French gender endings.
- BlakeBLAYKEnglish
Pale, or dark; the surname descends from two Old English words that fell together. Used for both, and Blake Lively and Blake Shelton are a fair illustration of the range.
- MorganMOR-ganWelsh
Built on mor, sea; the second element is the disputed one. Used for both, and one of the few that leaned toward girls in America while staying a men's name in Wales.
- CharlieCHAR-leeEnglish
Free man, from Charles. Used for both, long established for boys and climbing steadily on the girls' side.
- RoryROR-eeIrish
Red king, from Ruaidhri. A men's name for a thousand years in Ireland and Scotland, and used for both in America since the television character Rory Gilmore.
- OakleyOHK-leeEnglish
Oak clearing. Used for both and rising quickly on both sides, with the sharpshooter Annie Oakley as the best-known bearer of the surname.
What neutral means, and what it does not
Look down the list and one source dominates: surnames. Avery, Parker, Sawyer, Emerson, Morgan, Blake and Quinn all began as family names, and a family name has no gender to carry, because it never described a person's sex in the first place. Nature words behave the same way for the same reason, which is why River and Oakley moved into both columns so easily. That is the mechanism behind most of American English's neutral stock: take a word that was never gendered, and let it be a first name.
The traffic, though, runs mostly one way, and it is worth knowing that before you decide neutrality is a stable property. Ashley, Aubrey, Shirley, Evelyn and Beverly were all men's names in Britain or America before they became women's names, and none of them made the return trip. Once a name gains a substantial girls' side, the boys' side tends to thin rather than hold. This site does not have the girls' figures, so we do not publish splits or percentages for any name here, and you should distrust any list that does without saying where the numbers came from. What can be said honestly is directional: some of these lean male today, some lean female, and the balance in the year he is born is not the balance he will be living with at thirty.
Two checks before you commit. First, neutrality is language-specific, not universal. Angel is entirely masculine in Spanish and is read as feminine by plenty of English speakers, so a bilingual family gets two different answers to the same question. Second, listen to the whole name. Two surnames in a row, Parker Morgan or Blake Emerson, can read as a firm rather than a person, and a first name that is already doing double duty benefits from a middle name that is not; the middle names guide covers the balance. If it is the surname sound you are after rather than the neutrality, names ending in -er is the denser list.