Unisex Dog Names

Though it's used far more often for boys, Lyle has a lot in common with today's trending girl names that share the double L sound: Lila, Layla, and Lola.

Though Tate is used almost exclusively for boys, we can see Tate as a stronger surname alternative to Kate or a clipped form of Tatum.

While Clark ranks in the Top 500 for boys, the Clarke spelling leans towards the girls' side. Regardless, the name works well for either sex.

Poet is a new entry in both the trendy word and occupational categories as well as a member of the growing group of gender neutral names. A handful of baby boys received the name in the US last year. A perfect choice, especially in the middle, for the child of writers or those with a poetic bent. And Po is an adorable nickname for either gender.

Yet another creative character name from Toni Morrison, Denver was a daughter of Sethe's in the novel Beloved. Today Denver is most familiar as the name of the largest city in Colorado, used almost equally for girls and boys.

Embry became viable as a first name when it was used for the (male) werewolf character Embry Call in the Twilight series. But its Em- beginning and -y ending give it a feminine sound, so we call it perfectly appropriate for a girl. Embry or Embury is an established English surname.

Undeniably frightening and undeniably cool.

Classic Irish surname with a lot of character and some interesting associations: the title character of a Samuel Beckett novel and basketball great Karl Malone. Malone is a popular name for baby boys in France.

The field of nature names is constantly expanding to include all species of flowers and trees and animals and birds and even fish. In addition to its appeal for anglers, Pike recalls Zebulon Pike, the explorer who discovered and gave his name to Pike's Peak.

From Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, the story of a boy named Kafka -- crow in Czech.

Popular with Muslim and African-American parents, this virtue name also fits in with the trendy i ending names being seen at the moment. It debuted on the US Top 1000 in 1996.

Given to children of both sexes as far back as colonial times, this carries a lot of baggage. However, parents continue to take the risk. Actress America Ferrera may be have inspired some families to choose the name. Ferrera's Honduras-born mother shares her unusual name.

The short, cute Pim is a Top 100 boys' name in The Netherlands though little-known outside that country. But in a family overrun with Williams, Pim could make an original nickname setting a modern child apart from father Will and grandpa Bill.

A natural successor to Hunter, Hudson, and Huxley, Hutton is an unexpected yet on-trend unisex name. Associated with Scottish geologist James Hutton, and as a first name with designer Hutton Wilkinson.

Solar is a new gender-neutral word name used nearly evenly for boys and girls. With both a weather and a heavenly bent, it's a name that's just warming up.

Old-school nickname with serious charm.

While Sidney in this spelling has a long history as a girls' name, it fell off the Top 1000 from the early 50s until 1990. Then it reemerged as one of the newly chic androgynous names for girls, rising into the Top 300 before falling off the Top 1000 list again in 2016. Sydney is now the more fashionable form.

Sparingly used since the 2000s, Zealand shot of the charts in 2021 after YouTube family The Labrants gave it to their son the previous year. By 2022, it had quadrupled in popularity since 2020, and while a recent count has shown a slight decline in use, around 100 boys and 10 girls were given the name.

The surname of the great artist is pronounced the same way as Mathis, the German and French form of Matthew, so it's not a stretch for use as a first name.

One of the boys' names newly appropriated for girls -- either on its own, as a pet form of any J name, or as a singular middle name.