Gender neutral names

[dustysidetable]

My husband is insistent on a gender neutral name for our twins, I’m happy with it in principle and there’s so many gender neutral boys names I love but I’m really struggling for girls!. The only one I like is Shelby but he doesn’t like it at all. My favourite girls name is Sylvia but obviously that isn’t gender neutral, I like soft sounding names and not a fan of the nick names like Stevie, Bobby, Riley etc. Any ideas?

Sorry I don’t really understand what you mean? Surely the “gender neutral boy names” that you like would work fine for girls since they’re gender neutral? Is that not the whole point in gender neutral names that they work for boys and girls?

Rowan
Quinn
Riley
Avery
Lonnie
Sage
Aspen
Skylar
Kai
Sidney

Robin
River

I agree with the first reply,
But how about Alex, Charlie, Chris, Lynn, Jo/Joe, Ezra, Mackenzie, Cameron, Andy,

No such thing as a gender neutral name. Only boy’s names that are used for girls and people immediatly stop using for boys! Give her a girl’s name. Being a girl is a good thing!

So I know you said you didn't like nickname ones but would Alex work as it's a name in it's own right? (would your DH let you call her Alexa or Alexandra if she went by Alex day to day?)

Others where she could be gender neutral on short version albeit long version is a recognised female name:
Chris (Christa or Christine)
Sam (Samantha)

Actual gender neutral names, and I know, or know of, people of both genders with these names:
Robin
Rowan
Alexis
Ellis
Jay (albeit female version usually spelt Jaye)
Avery
Taylor (or Teyla)
Eden (although technically gender neutral I think most people associate this with girls now)

Port and Starboard

• Rowan
• Quinn
• Riley
• Avery
• Charlie
• Parker
• Sawyer
• Blake
• Lyndsey
• Rory
• Charlie
• Ashley
• August
• Billie
• Clarence
• Clement
• Ellis
• Evelyn
• Florence
• Frances
• Gene
• George
• Glenn
• Gale
• Harley
• James
• Julian
• Laverne
• Leslie
• Lou
• Marion
• Meredith
• Ollie
• Perry
• Ray
• Robin
• Sydney
• Vivian
• Hilary
• Shelly
• Jocelyn

Probably not what you're looking for because it's not a fashionable name at the moment, but I recently read the book Shirley by Charlotte Bronte and found out that Shirley used to be a boy's name. (Well really a surname that was sometimes used for boys). The female character called Shirley in the book had parents who wanted a boy, so gave her a boy's name.
The book was so popular that it inspired lots of female babies to be called Shirley, and ever since it's been known as a girl's name.

Teddy, Quinn, Blake, Jules, Ellis, Jude, Charlie, Francis

Ash/Ashley
Eden
Rain
Bobbie
Robin
Jamie

The thing is it’s my DH who wants the gender neutral names, so lots of them I can imagine on a boy but they’re not names I would imagine on a girl. Which completely defeats the purpose I know! But I’m still in the mind set of boy names and girl names.

Thank you so much for all the suggestions I wasn’t expecting so many!. Some that I like are:
Eden
Jude
Shelly
Frances
Billie
Aspen

I do also love Patsy, where I’m from it’s a gender neutral name but my husband only knows it for women. I’m trying to convince him on that one!.

Jesse/Jessie?

You are very confused OP. If a name is gender neutral then it isn't a boys name or a girls name. If you'd be happy giving a name to a boy but not a girl then it's a boys name to you. If you'd be happy giving a name to a girl but not to a boy then it's a girls name to you.

Write on the top of a piece of paper the 3 column headings "Boy" "could be either" "Girl"

Put each name mentioned so far on this thread into one of the 3 columns

Choose names from the middle column for both children.

Laurie?
Though I'm not sure I would have been happy if my partner had tried to limit our baby name options in this way. Your DH seems to have all the say on the matter.

Jessie
Jamie
Charlie/Charley
Robyn
Frances/Francis
Ashley
Rowan

All gender neutral and all names I personally prefer for females than males anyway!

But it might be worth reminding your DH that even if you choose a gender neutral name your children will still be their biological sex. A name is just a name.

Why is your husband "insisting" on a gender neutral name if you don't want that? Surely, you need to compromise a little here.

Anyway, lots of Russian/east European male names sound softer to UK ears - Sasha, Mischa/Misha, Nikita, Nataly/Natalie.

I think you’re confused. It’s not that the name is a boys name, so I’m calling my daughter Robert, it’s just that the gender neutral names I like for boys such as Avery, Robin, Billy etc I couldn’t imagine using on a girl. Even though they are gender neutral.

Casey
Ashley
Taylor
Morgan
Lee
Robin
Rowan

Alex
Chris
Sam
Robin
Max
Ashley

I like Christian for a girl, very 17th/18th century.

A modern Christian: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Lamb

Then they are boys names TO YOU. If you cannot imagine using a particular name for a girl, you fundamentally do not consider that name to be gender neutral and you shouldn't select it, even for a boy, even if it's on a list of allegedly gender-neutral names.

Funnily enough, I know 3 girls called Billie and 2 called Robin.

I love Robin for a girl.

as PP said, if it’s gender neutral it would be suitable for a girl or a boy.

That’s not the case, I can’t really explain it, I do consider it to be gender neutral and can imagine it on a girl, it’s just not a name I’d like for MY daughter. I’m not here to argue about that though, I’m just looking for name suggestions.