Interesting Name Facts with Julie Hackett — nature names
Go with the Flow: River Names
River - as a personal name - is gender-neutral in America. It is currently ranked #105 for boys and #150 for girls. It's been in circulation since the early 20th century, but it really took off in the 1990s (for boys) and then from 2010 onward for girls.
The premature death of 23-year-old actor River Phoenix in October 1993 is what caught people's attention. The name was suddenly all over the news. It hit the Top 1000 list of boy names for the first time in 1994, after jumping an astounding 730 positions up the charts...