46 gender-neutral Indian names, with meanings

What makes a name unisex here

Not our opinion. Each of these names is recorded in our corpus for both boys and girls — families are actually using them for both, which is a stronger test than whether a name sounds neutral.

Indian naming has always had a unisex middle ground, particularly for names drawn from qualities and nature rather than from deities with a fixed gender. Kiran, Arya, Nitya and their relatives have moved across the line for decades.

There are 46 of them here — a modest number, because the bar is that we hold a verified meaning and a record of both uses. Names we could not verify both ways are not listed.

The names

Each with the meaning our corpus records and the Devanagari spelling where we hold one.

Choosing one

Say it with the surname, and say it as a full name the way a register would. Some unisex names sit better with one surname than another.

Check the short form, which is often where a name picks up a gender it did not have.

Fix the spelling before the birth registration — every later document has to match it.

And if your family follows the panchang, our birth star calculator gives the nakshatra syllable from the date and time of birth; several names here begin with the commoner syllables.

Frequently asked questions

Q: How many unisex Indian names are there really? — Far more than 46 in use across India. This page lists only the ones our corpus records for both boys and girls with a verified meaning, which is a deliberately conservative test.

Q: Will a unisex name cause problems on documents? — No. Indian records use the name as given; the gender field is separate. Consistent spelling matters far more than the name's gender associations.

Q: Are these names traditional or modern? — Both. Several are ancient words for qualities and elements; a few are modern coinages. The meaning column tells you which is which.

Q: Can I use a name from this list for a boy if it feels feminine to my family? — That is a family conversation rather than a rule. What the data says is that other families are using it for both.