Favorite Names

The final e adds a big purple bow to what has already become a pink name. Try Brook or better, Brooks.

Cleo, one of the few girls' names to boast the cool-yet-lively o ending, is of course short for Cleopatra, the name of one of the most powerful women in history.

Emerson is a dignified, somewhat serious name associated with transcendental thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson. Much more popular now for girls since Desperate Housewife Teri Hatcher used it for her daughter, it is definitely still a viable boys name.

Renowned English author Evelyn Waugh pronounced his name "EEV-lin" (fun fact: his first wife, also named Evelyn, was referred to as "She-velyn"). But "EV-uh-lin" also works, and is probably the most familiar pronunciation of the name today.

This alternative spelling of Jordan is more popular for girls, but also given to a significant minority of boys. For both genders, it reached its peak popularity in 2010, about a decade after the original Jordan peaked. Today, the gender gap is rapidly closing as Jordyn falls in popularity for girls but remains stable for boys. For babies born in 2022, Jordyn was 90% female, 10% male.

Kayce — pronounced like Casey — is one of the hottest boy names of 2022 thanks to the show Yellowstone. This spelling was given to exactly 202 boys and 202 girls in 2022, making it one of the most truly unisex names.

While Kendall originally started as a boys’ name, and remained more or equally popular for boys until the early 1990s in the US, it now feels almost synonymous with Kendall Jenner, of Kardashian fame.

Peyton is the most-used spelling of this popular name, thanks to football star Peyton Manning, but it's playing increasingly for the girls' team. The Manning family excels in all-star names, with brothers Eli and Cooper and dad Archie.