Baby Name Poll Results

I think somebody just decides to use a boy name on a girl or a girl name on a boy and then other people start to like it and it just clicks

I think it stems from history & common sense.

It is personal opinion not any thing else. Like Names is a unisex name by definition but I say I want to name my daughter James and people freak out.

I meant like James is a unisex name

I honestly don’t know. I find that I like supposedly unisex or gender neutral names less and less these days, though. I think it’s being over done. And I tend to get quickly bored with anything that becomes super trendy.

It seems like in the past it was much more rare for a name to become unisex and when one did it was usually something that already had a softer sound.Names like Ashley and Sidney for example(so I guess I could understand how something like Riley could go that way)but these days it seems like people will use just about anything and try to call it unisex.
It can be quite a few different factors I guess.One being nicknames like you said.A perfect example is Jessica Simpson’s new baby.If she wanted to call her Maxi she should have named her something like Maxine not ruin Maxwell for the boys.There is nothing unisex about it but who knows it may go that way now.It only takes one sometimes.

Another factor may be when it’s similar to a traditional girl name.Addison is a great example for this one.Even though it means Adam’s son it’s extreme similarity to Allison probably made many people feel it was acceptable on a girl.
TV shows are another factor.There is a female Addison and a female Elliot on 2 popular shows.
Then there are some that I just can’t figure out for example Hunter,Hayden,Jordan etc.I don’t get it...I don’t find anything soft or pretty about them and no cute girly nicknames from them.So sometimes you just can’t predict it.
(no offense to anyone using these names,just trying to find examples)