Making a name gender neutral

I've always wondered what makes a name work for both boys and girls. When I thought about it I have always been surrounded by guys with girl names and girls with guy names growing up. For example I knew a female Michael and a male Ashley. As I grew up and was introduced to glam rock, gender and sexuality became a gradient. Guys like Alice Cooper became a major influence for more reasons then one. I always liked my name Becca, never really took a shine to Beck and I loathe Becky.

I did some research on unisex and gender neutral names. I had one main question in mind "What makes a name gender neutral?" or "How does a name become unisex?" It seems in the literary past unisex names came about to create intrigue over the sex of the character. Another interesting thing I found out is that gender neutral baby names are rising in popularity. Some people think gender ambiguous names are a bad thing, and they'd probably call it "politically correct." But guess what? Things change, things like names have always changed. I happen to love the idea of unisex names. In the Victorian era "Lettuce Burger" was a child's name. So was "Minty Badger."

Though I couldn't find too much info on what makes a name gender neutral or unisex (like a cultural shift) I have been learning some interesting information from Horrible Histories. This video from the BBC show illustrates real names kids had in the Victorian Era. I find it both amusing and fascinating.

I want to make Becca gender neutral (name that works for a guy OR girl) like... Kelsey, Sasha, Leslie, Dana, Tracy, Stacy, and Ashley, and Shannon, and all the other names like that. New life goal: Make Becca a unisex name.

What do you think makes a name that works for men AND women?

Comments

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