When considering given names (the one or more names given to an individual in addition to the family name) the following three types of culture can be distinguished:

1. traditional cultures in which a name is given to a human being or person regardless of sex. In these cultures given names are gender-transcending or 'epicene'. In certain African naming systems, for instance, a child's name may be based on the circumstances of birth. Thus, whether a girl or a boy, a child born on a particular day of the week may be named after that day
2. traditional cultures in which a name is given to a human being which is feminine or masculine. Occasionally the given name may be accepted for both males and females. Such a name is a unisex name. In extreme cases the given name must by law be exclusively feminine or exclusively masculine. And in extreme cases a child is given three, four or even more exclusively masculine or exclusively feminine names
3. a neutral-inclusive culture in which a person is always given an epicene name and in which a male human being may be given a masculine, a female human being a feminine name as well. This means that an individual will always have an epicene name as a person, but that such an individual may also have a gender-specific name to be used in an erotic or sexual context or in the context of procreation.

English belongs to the type of culture in which given names are normally either feminine or masculine. In the English Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, however, it was not uncommon for names to be used for people regardless of sex. (Thus, Basil, Jacob and Nicolas, for instance, were popular for both men and women.) The few English unisex names of today are often short forms for longer gender-specific names. (Examples are: Gene, Gerry, Pat, Ronnie and Terry.) As a result of this sexualist naming the present language has 'enough' names for males and 'enough' names for females to choose from, but by far not as many epicene names for persons. Unfortunately, this also holds for the current majority of other traditional cultures all over the world. It should therefore be worth our while to have a closer look at names used in very different kinds of languages, cultures and countries which are suitable for persons regardless of sex. Such names can be used then in a new variant of the present language, while the old names for men and women may be used in addition to them, may be used as names of persons at a later stage or may be deleted altogether.

It is not possible to discuss all naming conventions here, but we should at least consider the Chinese system, because the Chinese language is the most widely spoken language of those which do not belong to the same family of languages as English and, for example, French, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

The first part of a Chinese name is the surname, the second part the given name. The surname usually consists of one, the given name of two syllables in speaking and characters in writing. For the one or two constituents of a given name almost any syllable of the more than four hundred syllables and almost any character of the thousands of characters can be used. The number of possible given names is therefore practically unlimited. Traditionally, however, names are often genderized in practice, because the quality a character represents (such as flowers or being beautiful) is regarded as feminine and reserved for females or the quality it represents (such as strength or being martial) is regarded as masculine and reserved for males.

Sometimes a Chinese syllable and character are repeated, especially in names of women. Lili is such an example of a traditionally feminine name. This resembles the English usage of running especially or exclusively girls' names together, as in Billie-Jo, Ann-Marie and, without a hyphen, Maryann(e). There is, of course, no inherent reason why a Chinese double-syllable name or an English name formed from two simpler names would not be suitable for men, let alone persons. As a matter of fact, Yoyo is an existing masculine name in Chinese, while in French hyphenated names have always been given to both girls and boys.

The qualities associated in the traditional Chinese naming system with girls and women will be little different from those considered feminine in many non-Chinese systems; and the same applies to the so-called 'masculine' qualities of boys and men. Sometimes these associations may be based on real differences between averages for men as a group and for women as a group; other times they may be based on nothing or, even worse, stereotypes in which the one sex is believed to be inferior to the other, at least with regard to the quality in question. Nonetheless, in many other naming systems beauty is frequently assigned to boys and men too, as in the Gaelic Kevin (or Kenneth), the Arabic Jamil, the Indian Lalitmohan and the Rwanda Nyillingondo, which are all masculine names meaning beautiful, attractive or handsome. At the same time a girl or woman may be called "Abhaya", an Indian name meaning fearless, or "Jasira", a Swahili name meaning bold or courageous. For girls and women there are also the Gaelic name Bridget (or Brigid) and the Swahili name Etana meaning nothing less than strong (one).

In a neutral-inclusive naming system we must obviously dissociate ourselves from sexual stereotypes and differences between averages which are irrelevant or emphasized for sexist reasons, and therefore many given names with such associations will not be suitable for an exclusive use as masculine or as feminine names. In the end, the only acceptable traditional names of men are names for which being a boy or man or having a necessarily male property are part of their meanings. Examples of such acceptable essentially male names are:

Similarly, the only acceptable traditional names of women are in the first place names for which being a girl or woman or having a necessarily female property are part of their meanings. Moreover, the feminine form should be a form in its own right and not be a mere appendage to the male form (created, for example, by adding a diminutive or other such affix to it). Examples of essentially female names, which are as far as known acceptable, are:

Ultimately all names of men which do not represent manhood or boyhood in themselves and all names of women which do not represent womanhood or girlhood in themselves will be suitable for use as epicene names for persons. But in a time of transition or in an area where the neutral-inclusive culture and a sexist or sexually irrelevantist culture exist side by side the gender-transcending use of names which are traditionally feminine or masculine exclusively may not always be practical. Therefore this possibility will not yet be considered in the present document. For traditional gender-transcending names we will confine ourselves here to those given names which are neither exclusively masculine nor exclusively feminine in one particular language. (Some names are masculine in one language and feminine in another, but as we are looking for personal names which can be used all over the world as personal names, they will not be listed here either.)

Note that an epicene or unisex name in the spoken language need not be an epicene or unisex name in the written language, and vice versa. Thus, the name |FRAEN-sas|, also pronounced |FRAENTsas|, is gender-transcending in spoken English, but not in written English, where it is spelled "Francis" as a man's name and "Frances" as a woman's name. In Chinese this difference between the spoken and written language is very common when characters are used, as a syllable can be represented by different characters dependent on the meaning attached to it. The name Li with a falling tone, for instance, is written in traditional usage with the character for strong when given to a boy, whereas the same name is written with the character for beautiful when given to a girl. However, Pinyin is a standard written language in itself, and with the phonetic spelling of this written language Li remains a unisex name.

The following table contains an (incomplete) list of gender-neutral and -transcending traditional given names whose origins are not (known to be) necessarily supernaturalistic or theodemonistic. They are epicene or unisex names for persons which are also gender-transcending in the original language or which happen to be both a male and a female name in that language. A Chinese syllable in this list is usually the first or second part of a two-syllable name and may be a suggested, rather than a traditionally frequently used, syllable. Sometimes a name may not be suitable for yourself or for your child, because of its (original) meaning. Such a name is listed nevertheless, as it may fit another real person or a fictional character in literature.

The number behind a Chinese name or part of a name in Pinyin indicates the tone: 1 for a high level; 2 for a (mid) rising; 3 for a dipping or 'mid falling rising'; 4 for a (mid) falling tone. If the pronunciation of a non-English name or Pinyin syllable is very different from what one might expect in English, it is indicated how the name or syllable sounds approximately with the phonemic transcription system used in the Vocabulary of Alliteration. When it is not known whether the correct vowel is |O| or |OH|, this sound is provisionally transcribed as |O[H]| (and similarly for |o[h]|). (Keep in mind that B, D and G in the Pinyin transcription sound like unaspirated P, T and K, while P, T and K in Pinyin sound like ejective P', T' and K', that is, like consonants formed at the same time as glottal stops. Pinyin C, CH and Q share this property with P, T and K.)

There are languages in which the naming system is not gender-transcending at all, but in which it may be gender-neutral in that males and females have their own, independent affix (as far as known, a suffix). The affix is added, then, to a common stem of the name. A clear example is the Italian language, where masculine names always end in o and feminine names in a. Thus, Silvi followed by o is a man's name; followed by a it is a woman's name. The same applies to the stem Alessandr. Many Greek names, too, have such a masculine and a feminine version, altho the suffix for males is os in the Greek language: Konstantin followed by os is a man's name, followed by a it is a woman's name. Similarly, Georgios and Alexandros are names for men and Georgia and Alexandra names for women. In the Chinese language, with its enormous freedom to form given names, the same effect can be reached by using either nan or nü as one of the two syllables to choose from. (Nan means male. It is pronounced |NAHN| with rising tone. Nü means female. It is pronounced |NY| with dipping tone and |Y| like short German ü.)

When looking at the genderization of names from a language-independent point of view, a choice such as a suffix a for females and a suffix o for males is not suitable for universal adoption. Regardless of language vowels belong to a series with the vowel a (|A|) (almost) in the middle, the front vowels i (|EE|) and e (|E|) to the left of it and the back vowels o (|O|) and u (|U|) to the right of it. (Of course, the actual pronunciation of these vowels may vary considerably but not their place to the left or to the right of the |A| as in but.) Should sexes and vowels be treated as opposites, then the male sex and |O| or |OH| are opposed to the female sex and |E| or |EI|, not |A| or |AH|. The a is a (near-)central vowel which lends itself very well for association with personhood rather than womanhood or manhood. Strictly logically speaking, male and female belong to contingent categories and are not opposites by any manner of means. Yet, since there are only two sexes on Earth, there is little against associating names for the one sex with front vowels and names for the other with back vowels on this planet.

Ami or Amy could very well be a woman's name (which it is in English, if pronounced as |EImee| or |EImi|), Amu or Amoo (|EImu| or |EImoo|) a man's name and Ama(h) (|EIma| or |EImah|) a person's name. A person could be named "Ama" and also use the name Ama, except in an erotic or sexual context, where 'e might call 'imself "Amu", if a male, or "Ami", if a female. (Especially in erotic contexts it will be nice to remember that the stem Am derives from the Latin for beloved.)

Stems of names like Am in English, Silvi in Italian and Georgi in Greek still have noncentral vowels, unlike the stem and name Ananda, which has nothing but (near-)central vowels: |a-NA(H)Nda|. In neutral-inclusivism this name has a great symbolic significance and is the name of a person regardless of sex. There is no objection against deriving both genderized and other nongenderized variants from it. This can be done by treating the consonants as constituting a fixed frame, while varying the vowels. Nongenderized variants must have two noncentral vowels then in such a way that they counterbalance each other. The following scheme shows how:

This yields four new personal names in addition to Ananda: Unandi, Onande, Enando and Inandu. The stress in these names must be on the second syllable.

Exclusively feminine and exclusively masculine names (but not necessarily in this order) can be formed on the basis of the following two schemes:

On this construction examples of genderized variants of Ananda are: Inindi, Enende, Inande, Onandu, Onondo and Unundu. The stress in these names may be on any syllable.

For those who want to there should be no problem whatsoever to find a personal name for themselves or for their child or children. Even if they confine their choice to traditional given names, the long list supplied in this document proves that there are enough epicene or unisex names to choose from. When they are also willing to consider the above and, perhaps, other universal schemes with which new personal names can be formed, whether or not in addition to masculine and feminine ones, the number of names to choose from becomes practically unlimited. This takes away the last reason anyone might still have had for not giving a person or person-to-be a personal name.

INTERACTIVE CROSSWORDS USING PERSONAL NAMES ONLY

• Personal Given Names for Everybody (M/F) at this place, TRINPsite
• a similar puzzle with different personal given names at: http://www.xs4all.nl/~in/Game/Pzzl/CrssW004.HTM

INTERNET PAGES AND WEBSITES CONSULTED

• 20,000+ Names from Around the World: http://www.20000-names.com
• Baby Name Guide: http://www.babynameguide.com
• Babynology: http://www.babynology.com
• Behind the Name, the Etymology and History of First Names: http://www.behindthename.com/usage.html
• Chinese Syllable Chart: http://www.elgin.free-online.co.uk/chin_chart.htm
• Ethnic African, Afrocentric and African American Names: http://www.namesite.com
• The History of Anglo-Saxon Names by Percival de la Rocque: http://www.ealdormere.sca.org/vestyorvik/names.html
• On-line Chinese Tools: http://www.mandarintools.com
• What's in a Name -- The varying use of first and family names in different countries and cultures: http://www.rogerdarlington.co.uk/useofnames.html
• Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia:
  Chinese name: http://wikipedia.startplane.com/Chinese_name
  Given name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Given_name
  Unisex name: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androgynous_name