the name Blake

[darkoshi]

I was surprised to see "Blake" in this list, with an exactly even male/female ratio, as I hadn't heard of any women or girls by that name:
Truly Gender-Neutral Names: The Most Balanced of Them All

Wikipedia mentions this for the name "Blake":

Blake is a primarily male given name which originated from Old English. Its derivation is uncertain; it could come from "blac", a nickname for someone who had dark hair or skin, or from "blaac", a nickname for someone with pale hair or skin.

The article references the Surname Database, which has more details on the name's origin.

The name data I downloaded from the Social Security Administration site (ssa.gov) earlier this year does indeed show a fairly close split; 1346 female-assigned and 1366 male-assigned babies given the name in 2023.

The name may have gained popularity for girls due to actress Blake Lively, whom I am not familiar with. She starred in a 2005 movie, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which I am also not familiar with. She also starred in Gossip Girl, which I've at least heard of.

The SSA data shows the name Blake has gained in popularity for girls since around 2007, while it's been dropping in popularity (from a high of 6046) for boys since 2012. So it might end up being one of those names which changes over time from being highly gendered one way to the opposite.

Comments

[mellowtigger]

I don't know why Terry/Terri/Teri isn't somewhere on that list. I've known many Terry's over the years, of different genders. My mother once told me that they intended to call me Terry whether I was a boy or a girl. I like it as my first name. Has it become a gendered name when I wasn't looking?

[darkoshi]

There are many ways to look at the data. The lists on that page I linked to are based only on names given in 2023 or so, and I think only in the top 1000 names. Currently, Terry/Terri/Teri are fairly rare and not gender-balanced.

For 2023 the SSA data shows:
Terry: F,9 & M,203
Terri: F,20
Teri: F,6

Based on all the data from 1920 to now, Terri and Teri have overwhelmingly been used for females; the peak popularity for both was around 1960:
Terri: F,8742 & M,30
Teri: F,2330 & M,10

Terry has mostly been used for males, but also for a significant number of females. Its peak was around 1955:
Terry: F,5354 & M,15586

I think a good way to look at the data would be to add up all the numbers of people given each name for the last 80 to 100 years or so and then compare the various names' popularity and male/female ratios. That would better reflect the likelihood of you meeting someone (of any age) by that name. Might need to apply a curve because more people in the older cohorts would have died than younger people.