Obscure Baby Names: The Most Unique Baby Names Of 2011

Three years ago, HuffPost blogger Kate Quarfordt was sure she had found the perfect blend of unique, personal and not-too-weird in a name for her daughter. “My husband’s family is Swedish so we gave her what we thought was the most obscure one we could think of,” she says. “Siri.”

Now, Quarfordt’s daughter shares a name with the iPhone’s virtual personal assistant.

“Really Apple? We should have trademarked it before they swooped in,” she says.

BabyCenter’s Editor in Chief Linda Murray agrees that most expectant parents look for name that isn't too popular. "The top 10 is the list to avoid," she says. "I always love to look at the names that only two or three [members of our community] have chosen."

In an effort to provide inspiration for next year's parents, here are some of the names Murray was most surprised to see pop up in 2011. And while she says only a few kids will be walking around with these names in 2012, we can't guarantee Google won't steal one for their next product.

For more on the best of 2011, visit bestof2011.aol.com.

Comments

[emlr]

12:00 PM on 12/09/2011

Tesla could also be Nikola Tesla, from whom the name of the car derived.

[novabird]

02:41 PM on 12/08/2011

Parents who give their kids weird names are sadistic

[sputinc7]

12:41 PM on 12/09/2011

yep. all girls should be mary and boys tom, right on!!

[emmahanna65]

02:14 PM on 12/07/2011

Tesla is not unusual. Nikola Tesla was a scientist from Yugoslavia not a car!

[Jo Kennedy]

01:54 PM on 12/07/2011

We sat down with a name book and a red pen - stripper names and weirdly spelled names were crossed out, names already in the family were crossed out, ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends ditto, and then people we know but don't like were red inked....When we narrowed the field I spent some time standing at the bottom of the stairs shouting the names just to see how it sounded....Now we have a lovely little girl with a lovely name that is very popular in the UK but still rarely seen in the USA.

[novabird]

02:41 PM on 12/08/2011

are you going to tell us?

[emlr]

12:04 PM on 12/09/2011

I hope not. My g'daughter has a name that is unique. It is melodious, not weird and it is hers alone. It came to her mother in a dream. If Jo or I told then the names might become popular and lose their uniqueness.

[on kauai]

01:38 PM on 12/07/2011

How could any self respecting writer, or any editor of worth allow this article to be posted with the phrase "most unique" in the heading?? COME ON!!!

[ao78]

10:43 PM on 12/04/2011

I laughed out loud at the Siri story! When we named our daughter Fiona fourteen years ago nobody had heard it before (that we knew, I understand it's fairly common in the U.K.) In the hospital after giving birth I first saw Fiona Apple and luckily loved her music. The kicker came four years later with Shrek, though. My little "Princess Fiona" was psyched when it came out but by ten years old the charm of being "an ogre" was tarnished.

[loveandevil]

02:39 PM on 12/04/2011

Couture? Are you kidding? It seems like most people that name their kids Armani or Prada, will probably never own one of these brands in their life (and I won't either, but I'm not going to name my kid Gucci because of it).

I find the worst baby names in my profession, and sometimes you just have to wonder how good the drugs were in the delivery room for the mom to either agree to them, or to think them up in the first place.

[UKNY]

02:24 PM on 12/03/2011

I've got a very uncommon name and i have my firstname at gmail, hotmail and yahoo. That kind of makes up for all the times I've had to spell it for people.

[asiclilpup]

01:21 PM on 12/03/2011

Has everyone forgotten The Outsiders ? Pony Boy--Dairy Queen--Soda Pop.

[RyanLucas365]

11:18 PM on 12/15/2011

There was no one named Dairy Queen, The oldest brother played by Patrick Swayze in the movie was named Darrel, his nickname was Derry. Plus the others names where not split up so it would be, in order, Darrel, Sodapop, and Ponyboy. Nicknames, Derry, Soda, and Pony.

[NWmom]

12:16 PM on 12/03/2011

We just picked names that meant something special to us when we had our sons. One of our boys is named for his two grandfathers, one is named for my husband's late friend as well as my husband's scottish clan and our youngest shares a middle name with my husband. We chose our youngest's first name from a list of our favorite names though - it means defender of mankind, we thought that was pretty cool :) I don't remember at any point worrying about being "unique" or obscure.

[cedy]

12:05 PM on 12/03/2011

Lets see, I know or knew a girl named Fatuba, two brothers with the last name Lipps, a family of Fish's, had a woman boss named Ralph, a women neighbor named David, and a woman friend named Mike.

[novabird]

02:43 PM on 12/08/2011

did the Fish's go to school together?

[Earfling]

11:51 AM on 12/03/2011

Some of today's names are a puzzle
Kahryssa, Anferney, haven't come across a Boodylicious. Yet.

[novabird]

02:46 PM on 12/08/2011

I feel sorry for kids that are being saddled with whopper names such as Bhrieehana (Brianna) and Zackery (Zachary) simply because their dim bulb parents did not know how to spell.

[Earfling]

11:49 AM on 12/03/2011

What if the famous Norman Lear had named one of his daughter's Chanda.

He has six children, by the way: Ellen, Kate, Maggie, Benjamin, Brianna, Madeline.

[latoussaint]

11:47 AM on 12/03/2011

OMG. We found an obscure name and 6 months later it became a brand-name of a popular product. I was very upset, so can relate with Siri's mom!

[CarlyQ]

11:31 AM on 12/03/2011

People are reaching so far to be "unique" that eventually names like Tom, Mabel, Michael and Joan will be the names that are actually unique.