Vol. 41 No. 4 (1993)
Research Article

Feminization of Unisex Names from 1960 to 1990

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  • Herbert Barry,
  • Aylene S. Harper
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1179/nam.1993.41.4.228

Published 1993-12-01

Copyright (c) 1993 Maney

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

Abstract

Frequencies of first names given in Pennsylvania in 1960 and 1990 were used to identify 33 unisex names, given with substantial frequency to both sexes. According to earlier books of names for babies, most of the unisex names were given to boys. In 1990 most of the same names were given to more girls than boys. The findings support previous studies that names tend to evolve from masculine to unisex to feminine. Popularity of unisex names is usually brief. Most names given to a substantial number of boys and girls in one of the two years, 1960 or 1990, had low frequencies of one sex or both sexes in the other year.

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