What’s In A Name? Ask Taylor or Chris or Pat — Dave’s Diary

What’s in a name?   Ask Shakespeare.   A rose by any other name would smell as sweet--or something like that.

I guess it means -- it is what it is regardless of what we call it.  Which makes sense until we run aground on unisex names.  Take the name Chris.  Is that short for Christine or Christopher?  How much confusion does that cause these folks?

A  new study looks at the most popular unisex names over time in the US — you know, those monikers that can be given to either boys or girls.

Looking at data from the Social Security Administration, FlowingData has found the most common unisex names given between 1930 and 2012.

Jessie takes the title, beating out Marion and Jackie, which round out the top three.

10 Most Popular Unisex Names

1. Jessie
2. Marion
3. Jackie
4. Alva
5. Ollie
6. Jody
7. Cleo
8. Kerry
9. Frankie
10. Guadalupe

Other names to make the list include Robin, Casey, Tracy and Jan.

A look at the numbers also revealed that roughly 0.5% of all babies born in this time period studied received unisex names, with the notable exception of 1992 when the figures were thrown out of whack by the 1.2%. That’s credited to the change in Taylor from a boy’s name to a girl’s, although no one seems to know why!