Names That Switched Gender
Ashley was a boys’ name. So were Taylor, Madison, Leslie and Shannon. These are the 61 names in 146 years of U.S. records whose sex association actually reversed — not names that lean one way, names that changed sides.
Every name in the data whose sex association reversed — the share flipped from one side of 50% to the other and stayed there.
| Save name | Name & meaning | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ash-tree clearing | 1,829#164 | Down 11 rank positions in five years | 1987 | ||
From Laurentum, through Laurence; the place name may refer to laurel | 777#401 | Down 169 rank positions in five years | 1989 | ||
Meaning uncertain; from Irish Ceallach and its surname family | 319#852 | Down 106 rank positions in five years | 1977 | ||
Son of Matthew or son of Maud | 4,945#40 | Down 17 rank positions in five years | 2001 | ||
Tailor; maker or alterer of clothing | 772#403 | Down 241 rank positions in five years | 1993 | ||
Nobility through Alison; alternatively son of Alan or Alexander | 2,564#103 | Down 23 rank positions in five years | 1994 | ||
Probably garden of holly | 393#712 | Down 116 rank positions in five years | 1957 | ||
Possibly sea circle (Welsh); sea battle (Murchadh); sea-born (Arthurian) | 977#312 | Down 117 rank positions in five years | 1995 | ||
Wise (Persian); Daniel/Dan feminine forms; English surname of uncertain meaning | 244#1,027 | Up 33 rank positions in five years | 1971 | ||
Lake; also a familiar form of Linda and other names | 69#2,558 | Down 286 rank positions in five years | 1956 | ||
Wide island | 873#348 | Down 107 rank positions in five years | 2000 | ||
Elf ruler or elf counsel, through a surname | 5,267#37 | Down 18 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
Fruitful or stable through Eustace; resurrection through Anastasia | 125#1,665 | Down 465 rank positions in five years | 1971 | ||
Lake or pool; island | 161#1,369 | Down 339 rank positions in five years | 1984 | ||
Possibly Cenel’s island or ship island | 335#814 | Down 288 rank positions in five years | 1992 | ||
Son of Adam | 2,971#84 | Down 37 rank positions in five years | 2007 | ||
Possibly willow farm | 444#649 | Down 148 rank positions in five years | 1991 | ||
English rye clearing; also Irish Reilly surname | 4,441#48 | Down 15 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
Elf ruler | 2,003#146 | Down 90 rank positions in five years | 2012 | ||
Island of Lind, from a regional surname | 84#2,208 | Down 545 rank positions in five years | 1983 | ||
Probably white island | 238#1,046 | Down 105 rank positions in five years | 1986 | ||
Armoured head or misshapen head, from the Irish name Cennétig | 2,933#85 | Down 13 rank positions in five years | 2015 | ||
Scholar, through Schuyler | 1,818#167 | Down 103 rank positions in five years | 2015 | ||
Clearing on a bank, through Shelley | 21#5,883 | Down 739 rank positions in five years | 1964 | ||
Possibly great lord | 656#469 | Up 116 rank positions in five years | 1980 | ||
Defender of people, through Alexander; also a color name | 55#3,020 | Down 427 rank positions in five years | 1960 | ||
Valley on the River Kent | 932#328 | Down 14 rank positions in five years | 2012 | ||
Ruler of the world | 89#1,796 | Up 20 rank positions in five years | 1952 | ||
Pæga's town, through Peyton | 701#440 | Down 222 rank positions in five years | 2009 | ||
Descendant of Conn; deeper meaning disputed | 2,634#97 | Down 13 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
Probably ardor or enthusiasm | 1,631#192 | Down 46 rank positions in five years | 2012 | ||
Germanic name with ruler element; full meaning uncertain | 3,208#74 | Up 15 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Man; possibly army, through Charles | 2,160#133 | Down 11 rank positions in five years | 2022 | ||
Woodland clearing | 31#4,503 | Down 690 rank positions in five years | 1969 | ||
Gift of God in the Theodore family; bold people in the Theobald family | 3,945#82 | Up 90 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
Probably garden of holly | 30#4,616 | Down 1,492 rank positions in five years | 1980 | ||
Son of Emery | 2,241#122 | Up 33 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
From the city of the Parisii; mythological name meaning unknown | 497#592 | Down 176 rank positions in five years | 2004 | ||
Hare clearing or stony clearing | 748#418 | Down 132 rank positions in five years | 2017 | ||
Noble (Indo-Iranian); also a literary creation | 1,858#158 | Down 45 rank positions in five years | 2019 | ||
Short form from the Joanna or Joseph name families | 47#3,315 | Up 733 rank positions in five years | 1970 | ||
Yahweh is gracious, through John | 176#1,172 | Up 248 rank positions in five years | 1993 | ||
Cheerful | 24#5,300 | Up 243 rank positions in five years | 1990 | ||
Plain, field, or battlefield | 1,806#169 | Up 166 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
God is gracious, through the John name family | 47#2,731 | Down 675 rank positions in five years | 1954 | ||
Bright fame | 69#2,122 | Down 105 rank positions in five years | 1963 | ||
Variant of Tristan; meaning uncertain | 116#1,512 | Down 663 rank positions in five years | 1996 | ||
Black woodland clearing | 1,638#191 | Down 24 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
From Lassy in Normandy | 67#2,597 | Down 82 rank positions in five years | 1982 | ||
Kylie variant; deeper origin uncertain | 61#2,798 | Down 971 rank positions in five years | 2008 | ||
Greek Lord; also a modern invented name | 1,416#244 | Down 20 rank positions in five years | 2017 | ||
Crown or wreath | 1,496#203 | Up 202 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Short form of Gerald, Gerard, or Geraldine | 8#9,182 | Down 3,860 rank positions in five years | 1958 | ||
Son of Fionnlagh | 393#714 | Down 159 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
From Laurentum | 55#3,015 | Down 940 rank positions in five years | 1990 | ||
Lover | 1,421#214 | Up 85 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Town with a leek garden | 892#342 | Up 59 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
In the Charles family; probably man | 356#760 | Down 223 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
Ruler element; first element uncertain | 899#339 | Up 107 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
Yahweh is gracious, through John | 232#987 | Up 148 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
From the mouth of the Roe | 658#467 | Up 74 rank positions in five years | 2025 |
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Names marked *
- Joan — Mostly Spanish and Catalan masculine Joan arriving in the US, not the English name changing sides.
- Jean — Largely French and Spanish masculine Jean/Juan, alongside the English feminine Jean fading.
How a name qualifies
The birth data records each name separately for girls and for boys, so a name’s girls’ share in any year is simply the girls’ count divided by both. A name makes this list when that share started on one side of 50%, ended on the other, and moved at least 50 points in between — measured over 10-year windows at each end so a single noisy year can’t qualify a name. It also needs 20K uses overall.
“Crossed” is the year the five-year rolling share passed 50%, so treat it as approximate. Because a name is only published for a sex in years it reached five applications, a share of 0% means “recorded below the publication floor”, not zero babies.
The share is a ratio of two counts from the same year, so unlike most statistics on this site it needs no adjustment for the fact that far more babies were born in 1960 than in 1890.