Sunday's New York Times had an article about gender-fluid names like Kelly or Dana, whose owners can turn out to be either boys or girls. (No mention of Pat, the androgynous Saturday Night Live character created by Julia Sweeney. Huh! Some paper of record!)
According to the Times, names that once were strictly for boys are sometimes co-opted by girls. Shirley, for example, used to be a boys' name, until that mop-headed Shirley Temple ruined it for guys forever. Leslie also used to be just a boy's name. And what's with Chris? A newly popular name that spans both sexes these days is Peyton, given new currency by the Colts' quarterback.
What are the most popular names for babies born in Racine? Unfortunately there's no database that lists the given names of all last year's 2,627 births in the county. But the state provides a list of the most popular names used in Wisconsin, so we'll go with that. For 2006, the winners were, in order:
GIRLS: Ava, Emma, Emily, Olivia, Isabella, Abigail, Hannah, Grace, Elizabeth, Ella.
BOYS: Ethan, Jacob, Logan, Mason, Noah, Alexander, Benjamin, Tyler, Owen, Michael.
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