Unusual Names: Hidden gems on your own Facebook page

Unusual Names: Hidden gems on your own Facebook page

As a certified UNN (ultimate name nerd), I of course seek out lists of interesting names wherever I go.  But it didn’t occur to me until recently that I was being served up a whole new menu of unusual names almost every other day right on my own computer screen that I’d never really noticed.

Like most of us, I get regular notices on my Facebook page alerting me to People You May Know, followed by an invitation to ‘See all’–not to mention all the frequent ‘X is now friends with’ updates.  Well, one day I did attempt to see all, scrolling through the names of the friends of my friends.  I didn’t make it all the way through (curses on those with 4,000+ friends!), but I did get far enough to come up with some amazing options.

One thing I hadn’t realized is how international my friends and their friends are— representating places as far flung as Switzerland, Hungary, Australia, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Greece, and China, which further broadened the spectrum of unusual names.

Here are some that I came up with before my eyes got too bleary to go on–and as far as I could ascertain, these are all real names of real people.

Girls

Aja

Alta

Analia

Analu

Anjanette

Arja

Arzu

Aura

Ayelet

Bethan

Brideen

Cantara

Capathia

Cedar

Cielo

Crescent

Cricket

Dwyer

Edel

Emer

Eurydice**Evandra**

Fiamma

Fifi

Florencia

Gamine

Ianthe

JenJoy

Juna

Klee

Leeloo

Linsley

Lorca

Luigia

Mandana

Marilla

Minniemarie (love it!)

Muriella

Ninon

Ollitia

Orly

Oxana

Panama

Patrina

Pavia

Peternelle

Piri

Ravenna

Romana

Sidonie

Sixtine

Snow

Sono

Tavia

Thais

Tulsa

Undine

Ventura

Wednesday

Wren

Xany

Zamira

Zandy

Zia

Ziza

BOYS

Aziz

Bear

Benno

Boaz

Brigham

Chelbi

Conleth

Court

Coyne

Dood (can this be real?)

Doyle

Eames

Elizio

Eoin

Fergal

Finbar

Fintan

Fitch

Florin

Gago

Gardner

Gazelle

German

Gesso

Glyn

Hamish

Hovey

Hutton

Indigo

Inigo

Ivar

Joop

Joost

Kester

Kiel

Licau

Matticus

Newell

Nuno

Oberon

Octave

Pericles

Phyo

Rayno

Rome

Rony

Shade

Slate

Tamerlane

Tarot

Tiago

Timonius

Timory

Tullio

Woods

Yane

Ziv

This is one you definitely can try at home–just go through your social network contacts’ contacts and you might find some wonderful surprises.

About the Author

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz

Linda Rosenkrantz is the co-founder of Nameberry, and co-author with Pamela Redmond of the ten baby naming books acknowledged to have revolutionized American baby naming. You can follow her personally at InstagramTwitter and Facebook. She is also the author of the highly acclaimed New York Review Books Classics novel Talk and a number of other books.