Egogender
Egogender names a gender so specific to one person that the only accurate description of it is that person: a me-gender, or a name-gender with the holder's own name inside it. Two people who both use the word therefore do not share a gender. They share a label for the fact that neither gender can be named any other way.
Where the word egogender came from
A batch coinage post dated 20 June 2014 and credited to the Tumblr user queerspike. The post opens by saying its author looks through lists of prefixes and gets inspired, coins ambigender, apogender, brevigender, hemigender, histrigender and paragender alongside egogender, and closes on the thought that there can never be too many words for describing oneself. Its definition is a gender based solely on oneself, which no words define other than me-gender or name-gender.
Ego is the Latin for I. The alternative name charagender appears to come from character, and both wikis note that a person may substitute their own name instead, or narrow the term to egoguy, egogirl or egononbinary. Combined with Genderflux it becomes egoflux or charaflux, a form the Pride-Flags account on DeviantArt defined in January 2018.
Which date the sources give for egogender
Two, and the difference is a reblog. The coining blog is deactivated, and the post survives through a reblog by the blog genderdefinitions dated 10 July 2014. The LGBTQIA+ Wiki gives that July date as the coinage; the flag reference Encycloflaggia traces the original to 20 June and notes that some accounts credit flynneleh as a co-coiner. The surviving copy of a deleted post is what carries the date, which is the ordinary situation for terms of this age and platform.
Flags came later, and there are three. Helkie-three, also posting as same-memes, published the first on 4 November 2014 together with egoguy, egogirl and egononbinary versions. A design by pastelmemer, rendered by the Pride-Flags account on 22 August 2015, is the one the wikis usually show. A third, by momma-mogai-sphinx on 28 August 2019, is the only one with stated colour meanings: purple for individuality, blue for peace and understanding, yellow for clarity.
Who has described a gender this way
The Nonbinary Wiki files egogender under the xenogender umbrella, on the reasoning that it bears no relation to female or male, and gives a frequency of under 0.1 per cent. It also collects self-descriptions that fit the definition without using the word. The poet Eileen Myles is quoted from a 2018 interview saying "I'm the gender of Eileen", and the drag artist and actor Valentina told an interviewer in 2019 "I feel like I'm my own gender".
The same page quotes guidance from Gender Spectrum describing children who answer the question of whether they are a boy or a girl by giving their name instead. That passage predates the coinage and does not use the term, which makes it an illustration rather than a source for it: the whole documented record for egogender is two community wikis, a flag reference site and a DeviantArt post.
Told apart
Often confused with Egogender
- AgenderEgogender is a present gender rather than an absence of one. The similarity is that neither is described in terms of male or female.
- GenderfluxNot an alternative but a compound partner. Egogender combined with genderflux is egoflux, a me-gender that varies in intensity.
- MaveriqueBoth refuse the binary as a reference point. Maverique is one gender that many people share; egogender is a label for a gender no two people share.
Common questions
Questions about Egogender
- Can two people have the same egogender?
- No, and that is the point of the word. The definition holds that the gender can only be described as the person themselves, so people using the term share a label rather than a gender. The wikis note that a person may substitute their own name to make the term more exact.
- Who coined egogender?
- The Tumblr user queerspike, in a post dated 20 June 2014 that coined six other words at the same time. Some accounts credit flynneleh as a co-coiner.
- Why do sources give two different coinage dates?
- Because the original blog was deactivated. The coinage post survives through a reblog dated 10 July 2014, and the LGBTQIA+ Wiki takes that as the date. Encycloflaggia traces the post itself to 20 June, which is the earlier and better-evidenced date.
- What is the difference between egogender and charagender?
- Nothing in meaning. Charagender is a second name for the same term, apparently built from the word character, and both community wikis treat the two as fully interchangeable, listing them together in the same entry rather than distinguishing them in any way.
- How is egogender written when someone uses their own name?
- As name-gender, with the person's name in place of ego. The forms egoguy, egogirl and egononbinary narrow it in a different direction, and combining it with genderflux gives egoflux or charaflux.
Added 2026-08-28 · Revised 2026-08-28
Nearby in the catalogue
Related entries
- AgenderAbsence rather than an unusual answer, dated by the OED to a 1996 newspaper article, and legally recognised once, in Oregon in 2017.
- GenderfluxIntensity rather than direction, and a 1994 newsletter attestation that makes the word two decades older than the coinage most sources give it.
- MaveriqueA present, specific gender independent of male, female and neutral, coined on Tumblr by Vesper H. in June 2014 and named after an unbranded calf.
- AbinaryA cover term for genders unrelated to maleness or femaleness and nowhere between them, first recorded in a 2016 Tumblr post that was coining a different word.