Go straight to lists of unusual names for girls.

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 a name du jour like Esme or Clementine, Tallulah or Wren doesn’t make it into the 1000 most popular names, I wonder, when it seems to me that every other baby girl I meet has one of these names?

　　But then I remember that I dwell in the relatively rarified world of Nameberry, where people’s taste in names tends to be pretty sophisticated.  Plus, some of these names seem poised for a big leap upward – or maybe that’s just my imagination?  I’ve marked those I expect to hit the Top 1000 any year now with an asterisk.

　　The really good news for the moment, though, is that all these names feel eminently stylish without actually being very popular.  Top name Bree was given to 262 girls last year; bottom name Louise just 100.  (I’ll deal with fashionable names given to fewer than 100 girls in another post soon.)  So while, if you live in a nameberry kind of neighborhood, it may seem as if all 108 baby Tallulahs were born within three blocks of you, the statistics confirm that it’s a highly unusual name nationwide.

　　That number on the left represents its rank in the complete U.S. tally.

　　1004. Bree

　　1008. Pearl*

　　1012. Winter

　　1016. Roxanne (Roxana is 1126)

　　1027. Willa*

　　1034. Sawyer*

　　1038. Kinsey

　　1045. Shea

　　1067. Laurel

　　1068. Mae (May is down at #2457)

　　1076. Adele

　　1092. Esme*

　　1105. Anais

　　1106. Blair

　　1108. Delia

　　1118. Aurelia*

　　1134. Estella

　　1192. Renata

　　1206. Justine

　　1215. Colette

　　1226. Gwyneth

　　1231. Rhiannon

　　1249. Antonia

　　1299. Mercy*

　　1302. Gwen

　　1313. Yara

　　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*

　　2037. Louise

　　*names destined for the Top 1000