When the mother of all hipster mommy bloggers, Heather Armstrong aka Dooce, named her second daughter Marlo, all I could think was…..Marlo? Really?  You’d have to work hard to find a less hipsterish name, and Dooce herself has said she was inspired to choose the name by its original bearer, That Girl actress and Free to Be You and Me author Marlo Thomas, not exactly a hipster icon.

So I was thinking about how true hipsters would by definition search for names that were not pegged as hipster, when I came across a nameberry forum launched by the ever-brilliant Susan Chesney, called Outhip the Hipsters.

“What names are even more edgy and nerdy-cool than the Hipster List?,” Susan writes in the introduction to her thread.  Rule #1, says Susan: The names on the Outhip the Hipsters list cannot be on the Hipsters list or be enthusiastically endorsed on Nameberry.

Over the next 50 posts, dozens of the nameberry resident geniuses added their own entries to the Outhip the Hipsters list.  I’ve reclassified many of the name suggestions below, plus added some of my own.

Here, names that may Outhip the Hipsters:

RISING HIPSTER NAMES

The choices below are rising quickly through the hipster ranks and may soon be so hip they’re not hip anymore.

girls

Agatha

Dorothy

Freya

Fuchsia

Gwen

Louise

Magdalene

Mildred

Muriel

Pauline

Ramona

Roxanne

Ruth

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It’s a curious thing that, even when people prefer quirky or unusual names, they often prefer the same quirky or unusual names. Why is Clementine such a darling, for instance, while brother name Clement languishes? Why are Nora, Cora, and even Florence hot, while the equally lovely Flora is ignored?

In the nameberry spirit of promoting great unusual, underrated, unappreciated names, we bring you the latest in a series of names nobody’s using…..but should be.

CAIO – Variation of an ancient Latin name that means “rejoice”, Caio – pronounced not kay-oh or chow but kye-oh – takes the trendy Kai one step further. Contemporary artist Caio Fonseca is a noted bearer.

CALANDRA – One of the Cal- family of Greek girls’ names popularized by Calista Flockhart, Calandra means “lark” and has a formal, elegant feel.

COLETTE – The new movie Cheri with Michelle Pfeiffer may at least bring this name of the scandalous French writer back into contemporary consciousness. Out of the Top 1000 for more than two decades, Colette is derived from Nicholas.

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Our guest blogger Marion Roach first wrote about her sister Margaret’s horse-inspired name on her blog She Said, She Said, part of the sisters’ joint site, The Sister Project.  Margaret Roach, the former editor of “Martha Stewart Living”, also runs the site A Way To Garden.

My family frequently names those we love for sports idols. For instance, among the dozen cats and dogs who have come and gone in my life there was Saratoga Roach, a terrier of a beagle, named for the late-summer racetrack in upstate New York, and Cleveland, a hapless chocolate lab, named for the Browns.

Then there is my sister, Margaret, named for the 1954 winner of the Belmont Stakes.

At one point in his life our father was a turf reporter, spending his winters at Hialeah, his summers in Saratoga and the time between at the racetracks in the East. Amid the crowd he covered, one of the great pastimes was naming thoroughbreds. It’s an art—no name can be more than 18 characters, including punctuation and spaces—as well as a science: Names frequently reflect breeding, sometimes with great flourish. For instance, the year before my sister was born, the great horse of 1953 was a colt whose father was Polynesian and mother was named Geisha. Their champion offspring was crowned Native Dancer. It’s a great tradition.

And one that continued into my family. My father had a horse named for him—it was called Sportseditor. I have a sailboat named Ruffian, for the magnificent dark filly who didn’t know the meaning of the word quit, until she broke down at the mile marker in a match race against Foolish Pleasure in 1975.

But all this really started in January 1954, when my father and mother, on their way to Hialeah, stopped off to see Max Hirsch, the great horse trainer, at his winter quarters in South Carolina.

In due course it was revealed that there was an offspring on the way in our household.

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The news has just leaked out that in the September issue of Archie Comics, after more than 65 years of boomeranging back and forth between sweet blonde Betty and sultry brunette Veronica, perennial teenager Archie Andrews has finally made his pick, and he’s about to propose to….Veronica!  Personality and character aside, we all know the real reason behind his choice—it’s because VERONICA HAS THE BETTER NAME!

Newspaper funny pages and comic books have always offered a rich variety of girls’ names. In the early days there were lots of sassy career gals–reporters, aviatrixes and secretaries with names like Fritzi and Mitzi, Tessie the Typist, Tillie the Toiler, and Nellie the Nurse. Some of these early career girl names still retain their spunk:

DIXIE
DORA
ELLA
ETTA
FRITZI
GINGER
KATY
KITTY
LIBBY
LULU
MARGIE
MARGO
MILLY
MIN
MITZIE
NELLIE
NINA
PATSY
POLLY
SUZIE
TESS
TESSIE
TILLIE

The comics have also always featured more exotic heroines–adventuresses and temptresses with mysterious, sometimes bizarre names like:

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We’re always coming across names on nameberry that we never thought of before, undiscovered gems that suddenly seem attractive and eminently usable for a real live person.

How come everyone flocks to Ava and Aiden, or even Avery and Atticus, when there are so many names like this hiding in plain sight?  Beats us.  If you truly want something distinctive, there are thousands of such choices to be found just by clicking Unusual Names in the left purple column on most pages of nameberry.

Here, the first in a series of names you might not have considered…..but definitely should.

ABIJAH – A Biblical name used in the Colonial times that can work for both boys and girls.  Rhymes with Elijah, stands in for that name or Abigail.

AMORET – Redolent of love, this unusual name comes from Edmund Spenser’s “The Faerie Queen.”  The character of Amoret represents married love, an ideal sentiment.

BATHSHEBA – True, it’s a whole lotta name.  But Bathsheba, which means “seventh daughter,” has a rich Biblical and literary history.  Short form Sheba walks that intriguing line between being edgy and ready for prime time.

CIRCE – Okay, so she was a siren who turned Odysseus’s men into pigs and lured the poor hero away from the patient Penelope.  She also had a lovely name, pronounced sare-see, that would make a standout modern choice.  That’s her in the picture above.

CORIN – It may sound like a nouveau two-syllable boys’ name, but Corin has a Shakespearean pedigree.

ELEAZAR – A Biblical boys’ name with more zest and distinction than the flagging Eli variations.

KETURAH – Old Testament name – she was Abraham’s wife post-Sarah – that hasn’t been much used in the past few hundred years but has a rhythm and feel that’s appropriate for today.  And in case you’re still looking for Biblical names you never heard before, Keturah and Abraham had six sons: Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. 

LORCAN – If Logan and Aidan are megapopular, can Lorcan be far behind?  Somehow, this Irish boys’ name meaning fierce has not achieved the notoriety of its compatriots.  But smart parents will look to it as a fresh entry in that trendy crowd.

NICASIO – Love Nic-names but tired of Nicholas?  Then consider this Spanish choice that’s related to Nike.

PALADIN – A French name that means “of the palace,” Paladin was a title of honor given to Charlemagne’s twelve best knights.  That’s a name story any little boy would love taking to kindergarten.  There was a fifties television show by this name.