[OC] Babies given unisex names in the US 1880-2023

    by csferrie

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    1. Data from the SSA: [https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html](https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html)

      Made using plotly.

      Why did I do this? Apparently my name, Christopher, peaked in 1980. Surprisingly, during that decade, it was given to 10,000 female babies as well. So, Christopher is a unisex name. Sort of. In fact, 95% are “unisex” if you define it as given to at least one baby of either sex.

      However, most such names are overwhelming given one sex. Examples of “true” unisex names: Nike, Whiskey, Sea, Oakley…

      (The spike is probably due to “names” like Notnamed and Unknown)

      I wrote more about Christopher here: [https://csferrie.medium.com/the-christopher-paradox-why-was-everyone-named-chris-in-the-1980s-fd959d9dfd27](https://csferrie.medium.com/the-christopher-paradox-why-was-everyone-named-chris-in-the-1980s-fd959d9dfd27)

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