by Pamela Redmond Satran

Unisex baby names, when they begin to veer toward use for one gender more than the other, typically move to the girls’ side.

But not always.  Thanks to the wonderful chart by Steve Ruble that we are delighted to feature on our new unisex baby names home page, we can see how the gender ratio of unisex names morphs over time.  And an increasing number of unisex baby names names are turning decidedly more blue.

The unisex baby names on Steve Ruble’s chart and beyond that are becoming more masculine include:

Amari

The multi-ethnic Amari was two-thirds female in 2000, soon after in entered the U.S. Top 1000, and now has reversed course and is 63% male.

Angel

Angel was used two-thirds of the time for girls in 1972 but by 2012, 83% of the children named Angel were boys, many of them of Hispanic descent.

Artie, Donnie, Frankie

Nickname-names Artie, Donnie, and Frankie along with many others were a fad for girls back in 1880, when the Social Security Administration began keeping records: They were 85% female at that time.  By 1950 all three names were given to half girls and half boys, and today have become virtually all-male.

Ashton

Ashton tarted out as a quietly but consistently-used boys’ name.  Then in the late 1980s it had a flurry of use for girls;  in 1986, 1,200 children were given the name, 79% of them female.  But now Ashton is 94% male.

Carey and Kerry

Carey and Kerry have both been used quietly since the 1880s, for decades almost always for males.  But in the 1970s and early 80s that switched and the names both became two-thirds female.  And now it’s switched back so that 72% of the children named Carey and 66% of those named Kerry are boys.

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