Great Baby Names: 100 Unusual, Stylish Choices

Often I'll look up a name I think is attractive or stylish -- or even trendy -- on nameberry, and find myself shocked to discover it doesn't rank in the Top 1000. How is it possible that names du jour like Esme or Clementine, Tallulah or Wren doesn't make it into the pool of 1000 names that are chosen for 80 percent of newborn girls?, I wonder. Or that Theo and Gus are so far down the list from brothers Sam and Max, when it seems that every other baby I meet has one of these names?

The names on this list were below the Top 1000 -- that's the actual ranking on the left -- and were used for more than 100 babies last year. The actual number of babies who received each name in 2009 can be found here.

If you're looking for a name with a lot of style that's also unusual, here are 100 great choices. Warning: These names may not be quite as unusual in Park Slope as they are in Wyoming. And you may be hearing a lot more of some of them in the future. But in 2009, none was given to more than 270 babies total in the entire country.

GIRLS

1008. Pearl
1012. Winter
1016. Roxanne (Roxana is #1126)
1027. Willa
1045. Shea
1067. Laurel
1068. Mae (May is down at #2457)
1076. Adele
1092. Esme
1105. Anais
1108. Delia
1118. Aurelia
1134. Estella
1249. Antonia
1299. Mercy
1302. Gwen
1316. Chiara
1362. Cordelia
1372. Liv
1373. Mariella
1397. Geneva
1402. Arden
1404. Juniper
1423. Evangelina (Sister name Evangeline is up at #429, thanks to Lost actress Lilly.)
1445. Susanna (Susannah is way down at #2463, with only 77 girls receiving the name)
1450. Remi
1453. Thea
1482. Bryn
1545. Mabel
1577. Clementine
1599. Magnolia
1624. Faye (and Fay is much much lower)
1628. Louisa
1664. Wren
1678. Beatrix (though Beatrice has cracked the Top 1000 at 860)
1716. Darcy
1726. Keziah
1796. Isadora
1851. Maisie
1864. Viola
1920. Cecily
1924. Tallulah
1934. Octavia
1935. Ramona
1980. Magdalene
1982. Scout
2000. Flora
2016. Honor
2023. Allegra
2030. Dora

BOYS

1002. Edison
1005. Ulysses
1025. Simeon
1028. Taj
1029. Thaddeus
1035. Theo (shocked!)
1037. Turner
1047. Gordon
1057. Miller
1061. Bishop
1066. Lionel
1071. Langston
1079. Truman
1088. Hank
1105. Channing
1109. Hendrix
1114. Enoch
1115. Forrest (Forest way down at #2058)
1127. Keanu
1128. Lennox
1130. Augustine
1133. Colter
1134. Eamon
1157. Arlo
1165. Gannon
1185. Lachlan
1187. Abner
1214, Beck
1236. Clifford
1273. Judson
1284. Ewan
1313. Finnian
1322. Phineas
1325. Grey (Gray is even lower, at #1735)
1335. Bowen
1362. Gus
1371. Otis
1376. Magnus
1405. Harris
1414. Brooklyn
1425. Pierson
1428. Dashiell
1448. Foster
1487. Lazaro
1489. Zev
1491. Angus
1505. Linus
1519. Clint
1565. Eleazar
1586. Cormac

 

 

 

Follow Pamela Redmond Satran on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nameberry

Comments

[woodcreeper]

04:05 PM on 09/23/2010

Usually I'm a big fan of The Huff... but right now you really pissed me off. Thanks for alerting the world to my daughters awesome AND (never to be again) unique name. Arggggh.

[eric14]

10:45 AM on 09/15/2010

Choose first and middle names that suit the family name. And be careful with initials. I knew of a guy called Fred Art.

[llisa]

05:33 PM on 09/15/2010

Poor Fred. I new a Robert Aaron Timmons. (Last name changed to protect the innocent) Naturally he was RAT.

[ramal]

09:11 AM on 09/15/2010

Do the kid (And society) a favor: choose a name they can spell easily.

[fisher65]

07:07 AM on 09/15/2010

i named my ganddaughter maysa, i enjoy looking at new names , still.

[jjtx]

06:20 AM on 09/15/2010

I see some great characters from literature names here and that's cool.

Scout, Phineas - wonderful names from wonderful books - wouldn't have named my kids them though.

[jeffepops]

01:50 AM on 09/15/2010

What parents name their children says more about the parents than the kids. Just remember, your children will have to live with their names long after you are out of the picture.

[hbhawaii]

12:28 AM on 09/15/2010

Met a girl once, her mom had named her Latrina.

Ouch!

[dumosumo]

06:55 AM on 09/15/2010

Keeshay Lorraine - her mom liked quiche.

[ahuffreader]

11:44 PM on 09/14/2010

Why would any parent *not* want to name the baby after Linus Torvald?

[llisa]

11:23 PM on 09/14/2010

I taught a girl named Tonica once. Her mother obviously hadn't expected a third child when she named the first two Monica and Veronica.

[llisa]

11:13 PM on 09/14/2010

Methinks there is a reason so few children are named these names.

[JackNasty]

10:15 PM on 09/14/2010

"These names may not be quite as unusual in Park Slope as they are in Wyoming."

People in Wyoming encounter more unusual names from their neighboring state of Utah in a year than the entire population of Park Slope will encounter in a lifetime.

Behold the Utah Baby Namer:

http://wesclark.com/ubn/

My favorite Utah baby names are Tugdick for a boy and Vulvamay for a girl.

[inkongirl]

08:36 PM on 09/14/2010

My kids have unusual but stylish names and they're bummed that they never see their names on key chains or pencils, but they love that they can find their name in mythology books.

[Linda Buzzell]

05:47 PM on 09/14/2010

A baby is not a fashion accessory. Choose a name that your child will be proud to own for a lifetime. In times past, we named our children for beloved relatives or for qualities or people we admired. Now we just try to prove how clever and "different" we are. Sad, really.

[ramal]

09:10 AM on 09/15/2010

Sadly, to so many a baby is a fashion accessory.

[lioness76]

04:09 PM on 09/14/2010

My name doesn't even make the damn quirky list! & yes, I'm still bitter I could never get pencils with my name on them. :(

[PrimusElijah]

06:01 PM on 09/14/2010

My name actually is Primus, so I feel your pain. Although things got better when the band came out.

[BLACKCAT66]

03:57 PM on 09/14/2010

I always though chlamydia would be a pretty girls name or velveeta. Give it a few years and I'm sure some celeb out there will call there kid something like that. Hey you have Apple why not Wallnut?

[JScott]

10:59 AM on 09/15/2010

I've heard of Femal'e (accent on the e)