Unique and Uncommon Baby Names
Distinctive names with genuine history behind them, and how to tell an uncommon name from an unwearable one.
There is a difference between a rare name and an invented one. The names here are uncommon in most English-speaking countries but every one of them is a real name with a real history — they have simply fallen out of fashion, or never travelled far from where they started.
That distinction matters more than it sounds. A rare name with roots can be looked up, has a pronunciation people can arrive at, and carries a story your child can tell. An invented spelling has none of that, and the lifetime of corrections is the same either way.
The receptionist test
Imagine your child at twenty-five, giving their name over the phone to a receptionist. How many times do they have to repeat it? Do they have to spell it? Do they have to spell it twice?
One repetition is the cost of an interesting name and entirely fair. Spelling it every single time is a tax your child pays daily for a choice they did not make. Somewhere between those is your personal limit — and it is worth finding out where it is before you commit rather than after.
Rare now is not rare forever
Names move in waves, and the ones that feel freshest are often the ones closest to breaking out. Several names that felt genuinely unusual a decade ago are now unremarkable. If your goal is a name nobody else in the class has, look at names that are currently a step further out than the ones you are drawn to.
The opposite also holds: if a name feels slightly too odd today, that may just mean you are early.
The names
Tap any name to add it to your list.
Girls
- Irish — From Medb — she who intoxicates, or she who rules
- Irish — Freedom — pronounced SEER-sha
- Irish — Bright, radiant — pronounced NEEV
- French, from Gothic — Foreign riches
- Swedish — From the twinflower, named for the botanist Linnaeus
- Germanic, via French — Prosperity, fortune
- Cornish — A feminine form of Thomas — twin
- Welsh or Germanic — Fair, beautiful — the heroine of a medieval romance
- Greek — Goddess
- Norman French — The name that later became Evelyn
- Greek, via Italian — Order, harmony — the feminine of Cosmo
- Latin — Evening star
Boys
- Place name — From the Caspian Sea; brought into use by C. S. Lewis
- Latin — Traveller, pilgrim
- Irish — White fire
- Danish, from Latin — From Severus — stern, serious
- Irish surname — Prosperity, abundance
- Latin — An old Roman family name
- Welsh — Ardent lord
- Old English — Divine ruler
- Irish — Little fierce one
- Welsh — Immortal — the Welsh form of Ambrose
- Aramaic, via Greek — Courageous heart
- Norman French — Fine friend
Uncommon names are unusually hard to compare on a list, because each one arrives with its own set of associations and no shared baseline. Putting two of them side by side and simply choosing is far more revealing than trying to rank eight at once.
Found a few you like? Take them to the games and let the voting do the narrowing — swipe through them one at a time, or put them straight into a bracket. Or browse the other name guides.