The Best of the Rarest Baby Names

Updated Sat Jul 15 2023

Baby namers desperate for truly undiscovered baby names have always begged us for our secret list of unique names that nobody but nobody else has. You know, the truly wonderful baby names with deep history and wide appeal that somehow remain completely undiscovered.

The only problem was we didn’t have such a list….until now. Then we decided to run the extended lists of baby names from the Social Security Administration — all the baby names recorded in the US ever — against the complete list of names in our own database. What’s left is an accounting of names that were used for NO children from 1880-2022, a collection of truly unique baby names.

But the list still contained nearly 5000 names, so we had to narrow it further. What are the best, the most usable choices among the names that have never been used in the US?

Here are our 100 picks of the greatest top-secret baby names. If you're searching for a truly unique baby name — one that you probably won't find on your family tree — start here. You may well discover as many names here that you consider ridiculous as you feel are wonderful. But there are enough true gems in a range of styles that most adventurous baby namers will find one to suit their taste.

Rarest Girl Names

Rarest Boy Names

About the Author

Pamela Redmond

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Pamela Redmond is the cocreator and CEO of Nameberry and Baby Name DNA. The coauthor of ten groundbreaking books on names, Redmond is an internationally-recognized baby name expert, quoted and published widely in such media outlets as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Today Show, CNN, and the BBC. She has written about baby names for The Daily Beast, The Huffington Post, and People.

Redmond is also a New York Times bestselling novelist whose books include Younger, the basis for the hit television show, and its sequel, Older. She has three new books in the works.

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