On Monday, actress Haylie Duff gave birth to a baby girl named Ryan. She's in good company. Choosing traditionally male first names for their daughters is a trend that's growing ever hotter among celebrities: Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds welcomed James in December, Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher introduced the world to Wyatt in October, and Drew Barrymore — whose own name qualifies — had Frankie last April.
And where celebrities go, we lowly normals tend to follow. Once upon a time, names like Dakota, Avery, and Emerson were strictly limited to men, but today they're more commonly used for baby girls than baby boys. What other names are approaching the gender tipping point?
We combed baby name forums and celebrity baby news to assemble a not-at-all-comprehensive but nevertheless fairly representative list of male baby names increasingly turned female. According to Social Security Administration data, here are five of the fastest-growing "boy" names among baby girls over the last decade.
The popularity of the female name Sawyer has grown by 836% since 2005, Charlie by 457%, Elliot by 267%, Parker by 261%, and Dylan by 76%.
You might also consider rooting for these notable longshots — five names that remain uncommon among women, but that have nevertheless seen their popularity increase significantly in the last 10 years.
But even some of the very trendiest female-adopted names remain dwarfed by their massive male contingents. For example, of all 11,172 Dylans born in the United States last year, just 8% were girls.
If you ask us, the smart money's on Frankie and Charlie. Nearly half of all babies given these names in 2014 were female. (Frank and Charles, however, remain overwhelming male.)
Molly Fitzpatrick is senior editor of Fusion's Pop & Culture section. Her interests include movies about movies, TV shows about TV shows, and movies about TV shows, but not so much TV shows about movies.