100 Cool Uncommon Baby Names

[ironqueen.livejournal.com]

50 Girls and 50 Boys names from The Daily Beast.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-28/baby-names-100-cool-uncommon-baby-names-for-girls-and-boys/?cid=hp:mainpromo7


Tired of all the Theos and Sloanes on the playground? Naming expert Pamela Redmond Satran-coauthor of Beyond Ava & Aiden-scours naming stats for the best names used for 25 or fewer babies each year.

Are you looking for a great baby name that's virtually undiscovered?

Related story on The Daily Beast: The Top 20 Baby Names of 2009

I don't mean one of those hipster choices vibrating just below the Top 1000, ready to make its leap toward baby name stardom: Pearl, Juniper, Theo, Lionel, I'm talking about you. Those names are already used by a couple hundred style-conscious parents a year, and will soon be showing up on a popularity list (or at least a celebrity baby) near you.

Rather, what I have in mind, and what you may too, is a name with a genuine provenance (as opposed to a jury-rigged Lizzeth or Zhane), that is attractive (sorry, Ethel) and feels contemporary (bye-bye, Ethelred), yet is used for only a handful of babies each year.

To ferret out these rare and wonderful names, I unzipped the massive Social Security file of names used for at least five children every year stretching back to 1880 and posted the most recent results on nameberry, complete with the number of babies who received each name.

This is a trove of information for name nerds as well as for parents looking to gauge exactly how many other Sloanes their little girl is likely to meet in kindergarten (short answer: too many). Trouble is, there's almost too much information here: more than 20,000 girls' names and nearly 15,000 for boys for 2009 alone. And the further down you go on the list, the more choices you get-25,000 of those names were used for 25 or fewer babies-and so the harder it is to pick out the diamonds from the grit.

Let's talk about the grit for a minute. Most of what's on the long tail of the master baby names list falls into three categories:

-- "Yooneek" spellings meant to make ordinary names special: Tatumn, Lileigh, Axcel, Wyitt.

-- Invented names meant to improve on the thousands already in the lexicon: Wimberley, Mekhai, Shreyan, Imunique.

-- Words, places, and surnames used as first names. This is where working your way through all that chaff gets fun. Who's got it worse, I wondered: the boys named Hung or those named Eh? (Scarily, there were 10 of each.) Were names like Notorious and Clever, Beautifull and Naturell self-fulfilling prophecies? Would Wrigley ever meet Fenway, Dusty be disturbed by Breezy, Sparkle click glasses with Champagne?

But there are some jewels in there too. I sifted through the 25,000 names used for 25 or fewer babies in 2009 and came up with 100 fantastic choices, 50 for each gender. Here, my picks:

FOR GIRLS:

1. Amabel
2. Ambrosia
3. Augustina
4. Bellamy
5. Blanche
6. Branwen
7. Caia
8. Celestia
9. Cicely
10. Circe
11. Clementina
12. Clio
13. Cornelia
14. Dolly
15. Domino
16. Electra
17. Elspeth
18. Federica
19. Finola
20. Fleur
21. Franny
22. Henrietta
23. Honora
24. Ione
25. Isolde
26. Jacinta
27. Jezebel
28. Kiernan
29. Lake
30. Leonie
31. Lilou
32. Lucienne
33. Lux
34. Olympia
35. Ondine
36. Paz
37. Pippa
38. Sabra
39. Saffron
40. Saskia
41. Sinead
42. Snow
43. Tamsin
44. Tanaquil
45. Tansy
46. Toril
47. Tulip
48. Valentine
49. Verena
50. Vita

FOR BOYS:

1. Ahmet
2. Amias
3. Balthazar
4. Barnabas
5. Birch
6. Breccan
7. Brick
8. Calloway
9. Cashel
10. Casimir
11. Clancy
12. Cosmo
13. Day
14. Fergus
15. Griffith
16. Guthrie
17. Hamish
18. Hart
19. Inigo
20. Jago
21. Jedediah
22. Jotham
23. Kermit
24. Laird
25. Lorcan
26. Malachy
27. Maxfield
28. North
29. Oberon
30. Ogden
31. Orson
32. Osborne
33. Oswald
34. Ozias
35. Pike
36. Prescott
37. Raoul
38. Redmond
39. Romulus
40. Rufus
41. Serge
42. Stellan
43. Thornton
44. Tiberius
45. Tobiah
46. Vaughan
47. Walden
48. Ward
49. Webster
50. Win

Pamela Redmond Satran is the author of four novels about New Jersey housewives, including Suburbanistas and Babes in Captivity. She is also the developer of nameberry.com.

Comments

[ironqueen.livejournal.com]

I think most of them are terrible. These are the only ones I like, but I personally wouldn't use them.

20. Fleur
22. Henrietta
48. Valentine

31. Orson
33. Oswald
37. Raoul
39. Romulus

[blosmbee.livejournal.com]

Some of these I was surprised were used on 25 or fewer babies.
Most of them... There is a reason they aren't popular.

[lorienellen.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I was thinking!

[spaceandclouds.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting list!

Of those names, I like:
Blanche (on the fence. I do like the sound, not the connotations)
Caia
Cicely (prefer the Cecily spelling)
Clio
Ione
Lux
Paz
Pippa
Saffron
Tamsin
Vita

Amias (I'd never heard of this, and I love it!)
Lorcan
Stellan
Walden

Some of these are really not attractive at all, though, or just weird. Franny? Brick? No.

Names that aren't mentioned, but that I like a lot from the latter half of the top 1000 for 2009:
June
Isis
Eve
Aspen
Arielle
Gemma
Yamilet (love this)
Lilia
Zaria
Milagros
Mara
Martha
Tess
Belen
Leia
Cassie
Roselyn

Wilson
Allan
Matthias
Ellis
Lewis
Irvin
Eliezer

[penguiny7.livejournal.com]

I've recently begun loving Belen. I love Martha, too!

[spaceandclouds.livejournal.com]

Yay! Belén is a huge favorite of mine =) Not sure if I'd ever use it. but it's so beautiful.

[morningapproach.livejournal.com]

I like:
Girls: Isolde, Honora (long time MASH fan!), Cornelia, Blanche, Olympia, Fleur
Boys: Balthazar (it is AWESOME!), Prescott, Tiberius, TObiah, Vaughan, Griffith, Brick (because I love that kid on The Middle), Osborne, Orson

[forloveofbaby.livejournal.com]

Ogden is my married name... I cannot see it as a first name, sorry...

[lilacmermaid.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't really use any of these names, but I kind of like:

Bellamy (but on a boy ... and I like it better as a surname anyway)
Branwen
Clementina (but I like Clementine better)
Cornelia
Dolly
Elspeth
Jacinta (I like Jacinthe, the French name better - Zha-SAINT, kind of)
Ondine
Pippa
Saskia
Sinead
Tansy

Breccan
Fergus
Laird
Lorcan
Stellan

[apathykisses.livejournal.com]

I like Isolde. Lorcan is growing on me, but I love the name Malachy!

[theljfromheck.livejournal.com]

I will never take Kermit seriously as a name.

I do like Tobiah though.

[longlostblue.livejournal.com]

I hate these "unique speshul snowflayke" names, I cringed at almost all of them.

[nobodynomore.livejournal.com]

uh, no.

[penguiny7.livejournal.com]

Like:
Finola!!!
Henrietta
Honora!!! (wow, some of these make me very excited to see!)
Sinead

Balthazar
Clancy
Fergus
Hamish!
Malachy!!!
Ward!!!
Win, except spelled Wynn

Yes, more people should use nearly all of those names listed.

[daydream11.livejournal.com]

How can you have Jezebel on one list and not Judas on the other? I'm crying foul.

[lind-saay.livejournal.com]

Augustina
Blanche
Cornelia
Elspeth
Henrietta
Tamsin
Vita

Amias
Birch
Cosmo
Griffith
Guthrie
Hart
Jedediah
Orson
Rufus
Stellan
Thornton
Tiberius
Tobiah
Vaughn
Walden
Ward
Win

I wouldn't necessarily use these, but I think they all have potential for names, though some may be better suited as middles (Tiberius, for example) than as firsts.

[a-tergo-lupi.livejournal.com]

These aren't necessarily names I'd use, but they are names I think are decent. There were a couple other good ones.

FOR GIRLS:

4. Bellamy (But I think I would like it on a boy.)
13. Cornelia
20. Fleur
23. Honora
25. Isolde
26. Jacinta
27. Jezebel
31. Lilou
32. Lucienne
34. Olympia
36. Paz
39. Saffron

FOR BOYS:

10. Casimir
11. Clancy
29. Oberon
30. Ogden
31. Orson
32. Osborne
33. Oswald
44. Tiberius
47. Walden
48. Ward

[how-obscure.livejournal.com]

I like Pearl, Juniper, and Theo (as a nn for Theodore)--all names apparently "ready to take the leap to baby name stardom."

From the list:
Bellamy - has definite potential
Branwen - okay
Caia - neat
Celestia - sounds like a Harry Potter name, but I could see the right person working it.
Circe - on the fence
Elspeth - like
Henrietta - okay
Honora - potential
Isolde - neat
Lake - would prefer it on a boy
Lucienne - maybe
Saffron - maybe
Snow - maybe
Tamsin - really like

Balthazar - pretty neat but would probably need a nn
Barnabas - okay
Birch - kind of like
Hamish - really like
Kermit - guilty pleasure
Lorcan - hm...maybe?
Osborne - boys can get away with a lot of surnames
Stellan - has potential
Tiberius - pretty cool
Tobiah - interesting twist of the standard Tobias.
Vaughan - I don't care for the spelling that much but it could work
Walden
Ward

[twitchywoman.livejournal.com]

Circe and Malachy are actually on my lists.

[qtshorty1625.livejournal.com]

Would Wrigley ever meet Fenway
This comment made me happy!

I like (though wouldn't necessarily use):
27. Jezebel
32. Lucienne

3. Balthazar
19. Inigo

I was actually surprised by how many "legit" (meaning I could name someone with that name) names I found. I was also surprised by how many of these I recognized as last names.

[holidaylights.livejournal.com]

I feel like a lot of these are ruined by the connotations. And seriously, she objects to Dusty but not Brick? Some I like:

9. Cicely
20. Fleur
23. Honora
26. Jacinta
30. Leonie
35. Ondine
37. Pippa
38. Sabra - love
40. Saskia
43. Tamsin
45. Tansy


15. Griffith
23. Kermit - it's an old joke with a friend that I'm going to name my kid this. I'm not.
31. Orson
37. Raoul
40. Rufus - surprised this is so low!
45. Tobiah

[skudge.livejournal.com]

The ones I either like or don't mind:

Amabel
Cicely
Leonie
Lucienne
Pippa
Tansy
Vita


Birch
Calloway
Cashel
North
Orson
Osborne
Oswald
Pike
Prescott
Romulus
Win

Also: "Who's got it worse, I wondered: the boys named Hung or those named Eh?"

My dad's name is Hung... =/

[ohhvelocitygirl.livejournal.com]

cornelia is one of my favorite names. isolde is up there too