need a good gender-neutral name

[atlantafemme]

So, my partner and I are having another boy. We knew the name of our first-born before he was conceived but we're a little stumped on this one. Our stipulations are that it's gender neutral (though our first son's name is often perceived as slightly feminine,) and uncommon/unique but not so unique that we have to spell, over-annunciate, or explain it for the rest of his life.

Any ideas? We like Devon but feel it's too common. I love Hazel but DP thinks it's too feminine (even though the name voyager shows a good number of boys in the early part of the last century who were named Hazel). 

[CascadiaMama]

Our neighbors just named their daughter Carlin, which sounds very gender neutral to me. In fact, I just found it listed in both halves of the baby name book.

[mamabutterfly]

what about Quinn? or Keir? I think Jesse is gn also & love it.

[imogenlily]

I like Linden and Avery.

[atlantafemme]

Thanks for the ideas! Carlin is one I have not come across. Keir is new to me too. Quinn is becoming more popular. I know several born this year in my own network. And my partner loves Jesse but alas, we associate it with a former acquaintance whom we don't want to associate with our kids.

Keep 'em coming!

[philomom]

Carson

Robin

Sage

Kendall

Riley

[starling&diesel]

Finlay

Shiloh

Kerry

Jordan

Erin/Aaron

Rowan

Ronan

Harper

Soleil

River

Skye/Skylar

Terrin

Seren (Welsh for 'star' ... love this one)

Qouia/Seqouia

Cedar

Tennyson

Billy/Billie

Blue

Mischa

Sascha

Luka

Those are off the top of my head ... no more time to think as dinner's ready to come out of the oven.  Can you tell this is a topic close to my heart?

Congrats on your baby!

[happysmileylady]

Jorden

Lesley

Gabriel

Christian

Cameron

Riley (that's pretty popular around here though)

Kendall

Peyton (another popular one, course I live in Colts country so...)

Dakota

[imogenlily]

Beckett

[atlantafemme]

Wow. Thanks, everyone! Lots to think about. :)

[wishin'&hopin']

Holden

Avery

Park

Cael

[2moms3kids]

We have 3 girls (or will soon) and they all have gender neutral names:

Riley, Teagan and Shae. They have feminine MNs so people know they are all girls.

I think you got lots of good suggestions! GL!

Sarah

[mumm]

Foster

Mason

Hunter

Skyler/ar

Ronin

Rowan

Shane

Parker

Dell

I haven't thought about names in a long time.  Also the name you pick while pg may not be the name the kid ends up getting.  We had names for all our kids pre-birth and ended up not using them!  (Although with the twins we gave baby b's name to baby a and baby b was nameless for more than a month!)

My kids are Logan, Avery, Meryl and Finley.  All sound gender neutral but Meryl has the girls spelling.

[erthe_mama]

We also strive for gender neutral names! We thought Vida was pretty gender-neutral though, but everyone assumes Vida is female!

Anyway, some of the other names on our list that I can remember off-hand are Kale, River, Roux, Phoenix, Piper, London, Shiva, Parker, Briar and Dené.

[A&A]

Morgan

Taylor

[soso-lynn]

Can you tell us your older child's name to get an idea of your taste?

[capretta]

Adrian

Andrea

Arden

Ashley

Bailey

Blaire

Kelsey

Lane

Noel

René

Rory

[happysmileylady]

Originally Posted by erthe_mama 

We also strive for gender neutral names! We thought Vida was pretty gender-neutral though, but everyone assumes Vida is female!

Anyway, some of the other names on our list that I can remember off-hand are Kale, River, Roux, Phoenix, Piper, London, Shiva, Parker, Briar and Dené.

 I seem to remember from my spanish class in high school (yeah, 15+ years ago) that many words in the spanish language have a gender association.  And that association is demonstrated by the ending of the word- A is feminine and O is masculine.  So, chica, gata, tia are all female, chico, gato, tio are all male.  This applies to names too-Angelo or Roberto are male, Angela and Roberta are female.  I think people sometimes tend to make the same assocation with American names too, that names that end in A tend to be considered  female names. 

Disclaimer-as I said, I took Spanish 15 years ago.  I am by no means fluent in Spanish and may not be remembering clearly.  So feel free to correct me if I am wrong!:D

[erthe_mama]

That's a good point, actually. lol

[atlantafemme]

Thanks, everyone. Our first son's name is Avie. We found it when we happened upon a plaque at Dollywood talking about Dolly's mother, Avie Lee. We both loved it instantly. With this little guy, nothing we've found so far has wowed us. I like a lot of the names above but still feel many of them are becoming so common. Plus, being queer and having a partner who is gender-queer and works with a lot of transfolks, we know a lot of people who've chosen GN names--good ones too!--but we don't want to name him after any of these people. 

As for whether or not names ending in -a are can be viewed as masculine: Joshua, Ira, Dakota, Ezra, Luka, and Mica are all ones that are rarely questioned.

We have a very large, old cemetery down the street from us. When it gets a bit warmer, we plan on taking a walk to see if we what we can find there. That may seem morbid but I think cemeteries are sacred places honoring the cycle of life and those who cycled through before us. 

Anyway, thanks again for all your responses!