Gender-neutral baby names celebrities have used that are just beautiful
There's been a rise in gender-neutral names for children – especially among celebrities, and it can only be a good thing: gender and sexuality are fluid for so many people, so it only makes sense that more parents consider a unisex name for their kids.
A name can put someone in a box just as much as an all-blue room or closet full of frilly pink dresses. And aren't we past that? Aren't we ready for the next generation to decide who they are without the pressure of a gendered name? We’re telling you: androgynous names are where it's at.
And celebrities have given their kids some beautiful ones – like Lincoln, Bingham, and, yes, Chicago. In fact, the Kardashian-Jenners are particularly great at giving their children gender-neutral names: North, Saint, Psalm, etc. Kim and the gang are really onto something.
As are the stars in this gallery below, whose children all have gender-neutral names.
This article originally appeared on Glamour.com and has been edited.
Meghan Trainor / InstagramRiley Sabara
Meghan Trainor and her Spy Kids hubby Daryl Sabara welcomed their first child in February 2021, a son named Riley. Before giving birth, the singer told Hello! Magazine: “We have a name that we had since before I even got pregnant, like when we were trying to get pregnant, and it worked for any gender ever so it is his name and I am proud of it.”
Mark CuthbertAugust Brooksbank
Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank went left of field when they announced the birth of their son, August, in February 2021. Instead of sticking to regular royal names (hi, George), Eugenie chose a gender-neutral and modern moniker for her first child. Following the death of her grandfather, Prince Philip, in April that year, Eugenie also revealed that August was named after his great-grandfather, as his middle name is Philip. Too cute.
MEGACy Maroney
In a rare personal interview in 2022, Jennifer Lawrence revealed the name of her son that she shared with Cooke Maroney who was born in February 2022. Speaking to Vogue, Lawrence said her son was called Cy, which the publication explained was “after the postwar American painter Cy Twombly, one of Maroney’s favourite artists”.
Gary GershoffFrankie Kopelman
Frank. Frances. Frankie. Any of these names are the perfect gender-neutral baby name, which is why we love the fact that Drew Barrymore called her second daughter Frankie. In 2014, Drew - who is also mother to older daughter Olive - explained the meaning behind the name Frankie on The Ellen Degeneres Show: “It’s hard because we love the name Olive, but what goes with Olive? Every [name] started sounding like a colour or a food. Hazel’s a great name. No, that’s two shades of green. And I love the name Pepper so much, but we were like, ‘Olive and Pepper. Like that’s two things you find in a pantry.”
Ultimately, Drew and her husband at the time, Will Kopelman, settled on Frankie. “It was just a name that came to my husband and I a few months before she was born, and we were sort of like, ‘I think this is it. And then we gave ourselves the room to change our mind, but we never did.”
Kevin MazurWyatt Kutcher
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher are parents to two kids, daughter Wyatt and son Dimitri. In a 2014 interview with Us Weekly, Ashton revealed that he and Mila picked out Wyatt’s name long before she was born. “We were going to a Lakers game and I got name Tourette’s and I just started listing off anything and everything that I saw: ‘Sign! Truck! Wall! Door!'” Kutcher said. “She [was] like, ‘Shut up!’ Then I was like, ‘I’ve got a really dumb idea. What about Wyatt?’ She goes, ‘That’s it.'”
Kevin MazurMax Anthony
If Stranger Things has taught us anything, it’s that Max is most definitely a gender neutral name. It’s got the A-list seal of approval too, as Jennifer Lopez decided to name her son Max in 2008. However, JLo later revealed that she tends to refer to Max and his twin sister Emme as “the coconuts”. Which reminds us, Coco is a cute name too …
Chris Polk/E! Entertainment/NBCRiver Blackstock
Kelly Clarkson’s two kids both have perfect gender-neutral names: River and Remington. In a 2015 interview with People, Clarkson said that she and ex-husband Brandon Blackstock decided on the name River as they lived near a river in Nashville. “We live on a river, so it really wasn't that creative," Clarkson said at the time. "We were outside on our balcony, and we both looked at each other and were like, 'What about River? That's kind of cool.”
Stephane Cardinale - CorbisNova Tennessee
Despite giving birth to her daughter Nova Tennessee in 2018, Diane Kruger didn’t reveal the name of the child she shares with The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus until 2022. “I had her late in life at 42, and [Norman] had a child when he was much younger,” she told People. “'Nova' in Latin means new beginning, and a nova star keeps changing and is reborn. And we love Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains; we do motorcycle trips there.”
Allen BerezovskyGio Lavine
Adam Levine and Behati Prinsloo welcomed their second daughter in 2018, you know, long before that whole cheating scandal happened. They called their youngest daughter Gio, which Elite Daily said sounds like “Geo” which means “the whole of the world”. Cute.
HandoutBanks Koma
Hilary Duff named her first child, a daughter with husband Matthew Koma, “Banks”. Before the 2018 birth, Hilary told People: “We’ve known her name for a really long time. Her name starts with a B, and I keep calling her baby B. We actually agreed. We had one name picked out and then we swapped a week later and we haven’t discussed it since. It’s unique but it’s not too weird.” Hilary is also mum to son Luca and younger daughter Mae James.
Instagram/@KateHudsonBingham Bellamy
Kate Hudson's second child, Bingham – or Bing for short – with her ex, Muse frontman Matthew Bellamy, was named after Hudson and Bellamy's families. "Bingham is my mum's maiden name and Bing Russell was Kurt's dad. Family connections all round!" Bellamy tweeted after the child's birth. Hudson has two other kids as well, Rani Rose and Ryder.
Michael Tran/FilmMagic/Getty ImagesJames Reynolds
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds named their first child (of almost four!) James for a very sweet reason. In an interview with Mr. Porter in 2018, the actor talked about the complicated relationship he had with his own father, James. But he says Lively helped the two reconcile, which also led to the couple naming their firstborn after the grandfather. “It felt right,” Reynolds said. “All family relationships come with some complications. For better or worse, all roads lead to here. At the end of the day, it’s easier to focus on the good stuff than the bad. My father died soon after my daughter was born, but he got to see her, which makes me happy.”
Instagram/@DaxShepardLincoln Shepard
Proud parents Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell welcomed their first child, Lincoln, back in 2013. Bell revealed they had picked the name Lincoln before they knew if the child was a boy or a girl. “He (Dax) always wanted his first to be named Lincoln and so we got lazy when we found out she was a girl and said, ‘Hey, why not Lincoln?'” she said.
Instagram/@KourtneyKardashMason Disick
The name Mason has been a popular gender-neutral name for a while – and probably got a little bump when Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick picked it for their first child:
"The first time I started looking at baby names, Mason was the only one I liked," Kardashian said in an interview. "It was the only one that stuck with me. Right before he was born, I told my aunt we were thinking about going with that for a name. She told me that Mason means the same thing in English that Kardashian means in Armenian—stone worker. Another aunt told me my great uncle used to use the name Mason when he made dinner reservations, because Kardashian was too long. When I heard that, I thought, 'Oh my God, it's meant to be.'"
Donato Sardella/Getty ImagesRaddix Madden
Cameron Diaz and husband Benji Madden surprised the world in January when they announced they had welcomed a child, Raddix Chloe Wildflower Madden, into the family.
They're keeping details about Raddix private, but did share this on Instagram: “She has instantly captured our hearts and completed our family. While we are overjoyed to share this news, we also feel a strong instinct to protect our little one’s privacy. So we won’t be posting pictures or sharing any more details, other than the fact that she is really really cute. Some would even say RAD.”
Instagram/@KourtneyKardashReign Disick
“I'm never certain [with names] until they're born...I actually had the name [Reign] on our list with Mason. Then with Penelope, I had it on the list but spelled R-A-I-N,” Kourtney Kardashian said of her and Scott Disick's youngest kid. “Once I found out I was having a boy, we just changed the spelling again.”
Instagram/@KimKardashianSaint West
According to E! News—via a “source,” so take it with a grain of salt!—Kim Kardashian and her husband, Kanye West, decided to name their second child Saint because of Kardashian's difficult pregnancy. It's akin to calling the child “a blessing,” the source explained. West and Kardashian's other children have gender-neutral names as well: North, Chicago, and Psalm.
Instagram/@NicoleKidmanSunday Rose Kidman Urban
