Unisex name

Key takeaways

Unisex name belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Unisex name to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Unisex name from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A unisex name (also known as an epicene name, a gender-neutral name or an androgynous name) is a given name that is not gender-specific. Unisex names are common in the English-speaking world, especially in the United States. By contrast, some countries have laws preventing unisex names, requiring parents to give their children sex-specific names. In other countries or cultures, social norms oppose such names and transgressions may result in discrimination, ridicule, and psychological abuse. Names may have different gender connotations from country to country or language to language. For example, the Italian male name Andrea (derived from Greek Andreas) is understood as a female name in many languages, such as English, German, Hungarian, Czech, and Spanish. Parents may name their child in honor of a person of another sex, which – if done widely – can result in the name becoming unisex. For example, Christians, particularly Catholics, may give a child a second/middle name of the opposite sex, e.g. name a son Marie or Maria in honor of the Virgin Mary or formerly Anne for Saint Anne; or name a daughter José in honor of Saint Joseph or Jean in honor of John the Baptist. In the United States, one popular names website considers a name unisex if Census Bureau and Social Security Administration data shows a name is assigned to a particular gender less than 95 percent of the time. Some masculine and feminine names are homophones, pronounced the same regardless of gender but spelled differently. These names are not strictly unisex names.

African

Unisex names of African origin include:

East Africa Alemayehu Berhane

South Africa Kagiso Karabo Tshepiso (promise) Lerato (love) Puleng Mogau/Magao Lebogang Mpho Lesedi Kabelo sentebale

Zimbabwe

Shona, a Bantu group in Zimbabwe, have unisex names which may indicate the circumstances of the baby or the family during the time of the birth. All Shona names have a meaning, some also celebrate virtue or worship God.

West Africa Abimbola Ade Anan Ayo Chidi Chike Dayo Efe Tolu Nana Imani Ekei Bassey Offiong Obo Ife A Nigerian given name meaning 'Love'.

Asian

Arabic

Armenian Arshaluys (Արշալույս) Artsvik (Արծվիկ) Nairi / Nayiri (Նաիրի, Նայիրի) Hayastan (Հայաստան)

Chinese

Chinese given names are composed of 1–3 Chinese characters, with the exception of non-Han ethnic groups who sometimes choose to use their native naming traditions instead and transliterate their names to Chinese for legal registration, often ending up in very long Chinese full names. Some characters have masculine connotations tied to them (for example, 偉 (wěi), 冠 (guàn), 宏 (hóng), 廷 (tíng), 傑 (jié), 豪 (háo)), some have feminine connotations (for example, 娟 (juān), 妍 (yán), 淑 (shú), 卉 (huì), 晴 (qíng), 薇 (wéi)), and some can be fully gender-neutral or will only gain a masculine/feminine leaning when paired with another character that has a specific leaning (for example, 家 (jiā), 安 (ān), 子 (zǐ), 文 (wén), 品 (pǐn), 華 (huá)). Some Chinese given names may have the same pronunciation, but use different characters associated with different genders to give the name a gender association.

Hebrew

Many of the modern Hebrew names have become unisex and are suitable for both boys and girls. Some popular examples are:

Indian languages

Many Indian names become unisex when written with Latin characters because of the limitations of transliteration. The spellings Chandra and Krishna, for example, are transliterations of both the masculine and feminine versions of those names. In Indian languages, the final a in each of these names are different letters with different pronunciations, so there is no ambiguity. However, when they are seen (and usually, spoken) by someone unfamiliar with Indian languages, they become sexually ambiguous. Other Indian names, such as Ananda, are exclusively or nearly exclusively masculine in India, but because of their a ending, are assumed to be feminine in Anglophone societies. Nehal, Sonal, Sonu, Snehal, Niral, Pranjal and Anmol are used commonly to name baby boys or girls in western states of India such as Gujarat. Similarly, names like Kajal, Sujal, Viral, Harshal, Deepal, Bobby, Mrinal, Jyoti, Shakti, Nilam, Kiran, Lucky, Ashwini, Shashi, Malhar, Umang, Shubham and Anupam are also very common sex-neutral names or unisex names in India. Most Punjabi Sikh first names such as "Sandeep, Gurdeep, Kuldeep, Mandeep", "Surjeet, Gurjeet, Kuljeet, Harjeet, Manjeet", "Harpreet, Gurpreet, Jaspreet, Kulpreet, Manpreet", "Prabhjot, Harjot, Gurjot, Jasjot" and "Sukhjinder, Bhupinder, Jasbinder, Parminder, Kulvinder, Harjinder, Ranjodh, Sheeraz, Hardeep, Kirandeep, Sukhdeep, Govindpal, Encarl, Rajan" are unisex names and equally commonly given to either sex. Also, names derived from Dari Persian and Arabic, but not used among native speakers of those languages, are common among South Asian Muslims. Since Persian does not assign genders to inanimate nouns, some of these names are gender-neutral, for example Roshan, Hitesh, Sudesh, Parveen, and Insaaf.

Indonesian

Ade Ananda Ari Aulia Bintang Chandra Dana Deva Dian: lamp Dika Dwi Eka: first born Kiki Lintang

Nana Nanda Nur Reza Riski Suryana Tri Wahyu Yana Yani

Japanese

Despite there being only a small number of Japanese unisex names in use, unisex names are widely popular. Many high-profile Japanese celebrities such as Hikaru Utada, Jun Matsumoto, Ryo Nishikido, and Izumi Sakai have unisex names. Many of the entries in the following list, in Roman characters, each represent more than one name, with different meanings, which are often distinguished by the use of different kanji characters.

Nicknames Unisex names may also be used as nicknames. For example, a man named Ryounosuke and a woman named Ryouko may both use the unisex name Ryou as a nickname.

Kazakh Unisex names in Kazakhstan are not rare. About 555 000 (4,11%) Kazakh people in Kazakhstan have 617 unisex names with 10% threshold.

Korean All Korean names are unisex (ungendered), but some names are more commonly given to boys and other more commonly to girls.

Persian Arya Azar Dana Nikan Nima Tiam Yara

Turkish

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Unisex name

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Unisex name claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Unisex name before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Unisex name ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Unisex name

In research: Unisex name appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Unisex name in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Unisex name is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Gender in language, Sociolinguistics, Unisex given names, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Unisex name outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Unisex name in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Unisex name means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Unisex name out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Unisex name in simple terms?

A unisex name (also known as an epicene name, a gender-neutral name or an androgynous name) is a given name that is not gender-specific. Unisex names are common in the English-speaking world, especially in the United States.

Why does Unisex name matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Unisex name?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Unisex name.