Unisex baby names: 31 Arabic, Turkish and international ideas for a girl or a boy

You would rather not find out the baby's sex before the birth, but you would love to settle on a name beforehand. Or you are simply looking for a name that does not give everything away at first glance. Unisex baby names, also called gender-neutral names, answer both wishes.

Arabic has plenty of them, because many given names are everyday nouns with no gender marker: light, hope, the moon. We have picked 31 of them, Arabic, Turkish and international. For each one, the meaning and its use for both sexes have been checked in at least two references, and the Arabic script is given where it exists.

What is a unisex name?

It is a name anyone can carry, whatever their sex, according to the definition of the Office québécois de la langue française, which gives Claude and Camille as examples. In reality, a unisex name is rarely shared fifty-fifty. Sociologist Baptiste Coulmont, who studies data from INSEE (France's national statistics institute), shows that truly balanced unisex names remain rare in France, while around one child in eight born in 2025 received a name that is also given, at least a little, to the other sex.

The key thing to remember: a unisex name nearly always leans to one side, and that side can change from one country or one era to the next. That is the secret to choosing well.

Unisex Arabic names: light, moon, hope

These are words from everyday language, often taken from nature or from virtues. The table shows, according to our sources, the sex to which the name is most often given.

For Malak, Behind the Name also gives the spelling ملك: choose the Arabic script in advance, since it will appear on the birth certificate. As for Amal, Baptiste Coulmont classes it among the "slightly unisex" names in France, meaning it is mostly but not exclusively feminine.

Sky and nature

Rare unisex names

The sources disagree on Wissam: Behind the Name gives it to both sexes, Wikipedia presents it as masculine. In Morocco, it is best treated as a boy's name.

Turkish unisex names: sea, island, hope

Turkish has no grammatical gender, so many of its names are naturally unisex. These have no original Arabic spelling, except Hilal: for the Moroccan certificate, the Arabic transcription will be based on the pronunciation.

Hilal shows the trap clearly: the same name, written هلال, will be read as masculine by a Moroccan family and as feminine by a Turkish one. More ideas from Turkey are gathered in our selection of Turkish names that work well in Morocco.

Camille, Eden, Sacha: international unisex names

If your family lives across several countries, these names are easy to say in Darija, French and English. Their Arabic spelling will simply be a transcription.

Camille is a telling case: it became very feminine in France between 1945 and 2000, and is now turning unisex again. A unisex name moves, and you cannot know which way it will lean in twenty years.

How to choose a name for a girl or a boy with no regrets

Three simple questions are often enough.

1. Where will your child live? A name perceived as masculine in Morocco may be read as feminine elsewhere, and vice versa. Test it on relatives and friends from both countries.
2. Does the name sound good with the surname? Say the full name out loud, in Darija, Arabic, French and English.
3. Do you want to remove the ambiguity? A second given name can do it, or a derived form such as Noura for a girl.

If you like the idea but want a name you rarely hear, our selection of unique names that are easy to carry anywhere has more. For names that are clearly gendered, see our lists of Arabic girl names and Arabic boy names.

What Moroccan civil law says

A unisex name raises no particular problem. Article 34 of Law 36-21 on civil status sets conditions that have nothing to do with gender: the name must not be a family name or the name of a city, village or tribe, must not invite mockery, and a compound name combines at most two given names, with no title such as Lalla or Moulay. The child's sex, for its part, is recorded separately on the certificate.

For Turkish or international names, the old requirement of a "Moroccan character" disappeared with this law. And since the 2023 implementing decree, a registrar who hesitates can no longer refuse on their own: they pass the file to the High Commission for Civil Status. Everything is explained in our guide to the rules for baby names in Morocco.

From the shop

A keepsake, whatever the name

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