Jocelyn

You might be surprised to learn that the name Jocelyn is gender-neutral — and in fact, started out as a boy’s name! With roots in Old German/Old French and stemming from Joscelin, the name Jocelyn means “one of the Gauts” or “one of the Goths” and was used primarily as a masculine name as early as the 11th century before gaining popularity as a feminine first name in the early 20th century.

While the name Jocelyn is still commonly used as a boy name in Britain, it’s much less common in the United States, making it an exceedingly unique choice for a baby boy. According to data from the Social Security Administration, the name Jocelyn hasn’t cracked the Top 1000 baby names for boys in any year since 1900. In contrast, as a girl name, Jocelyn has been in the Top 1000 since 1927 and it reached peak popularity in 2007, when it ranked 50th. (More recently, it has hovered in the 200-300 range.)

Famous men named Jocelyn include Jocelyn Gourvennec, a French professional football manager and former player, Canadian cyclist Jocelyn Lovell, and Canadian hockey player
Jocelyn Thibault.

Jocelyn has a place in the arts, as well: 'Jocelyn' is a four-act French opera by Benjamin Godard that premiered in 1888.