Last month, Multnomah County in Oregon, which has a population of about 800,000 and includes Portland, passed a similar measure, replacing gendered pronouns with the singular use of “they” and related words. Miami replaced gendered words in 2017, and changed all singular pronouns — many of which had previously just said “he” — to “he/she.”

In some languages gender pronouns are less of an issue. In Thai, a single word can convey he, she and they. In Turkish “o” means he, she or it. In Mandarin Chinese, the characters for he and she are different but they are pronounced the same.

But in English, as with French, Spanish, German and many other languages, gender is intertwined with pronouns.

Some grammarians have resisted the solution of “they” when referring to a single person.

Ms. Droste, the Berkeley councilmember, said she was surprised how much attention — and criticism — the ordinance had received. City hall was deluged with calls and emails, she said.

“I am not the type of legislator who likes to vote for solutions in search of a problem,” she said. “But I think this poses a very real issue.”

Miami, unlike Berkeley, chose to continue referring to people in the third person as he or she because of concerns about how the more modern use of the singular “they” would be interpreted in court.

“Unfortunately, when it comes to interpretation of words, when you have things that are vague, it can create problems,” said Leah Weston, a lawyer who as a policy director in the Miami city government started the effort to rewrite the code. “Using a plural pronoun to refer to the singular could cause some confusion, and local governments — any kinds of governments — are dragged into court all the time.”