Unpopular Baby Names: Avoiding the Jacobs, Emilys and Madisons

My wife has now fin­ished the first trimester of her preg­nan­cy so we can let peo­ple know that our lit­tle Theo’s going to be a big broth­er this fall. That means it’s time to think of baby names.

Fallen Baby Names List
Name Rank:
1900		 Rank:
2003		 Drop Name Rank:
1900		 Rank:
2003		 Drop
1 Her­bert 32 962 930 1 Edna 17 986 969
2 Her­man 45 974 929 2 Louise 24 977 953
3 Floyd 50 964 914 3 Beat­rice 44 982 938
4 J 35 920 885 4 Bertha 26 963 937
5 Fred 19 876 857 5 Gladys 15 945 930
6 Earl 27 882 855 6 Lucille 49 954 905
7 Clarence 18 717 699 7 Dorothy 7 846 839
8 Howard 30 721 691 8 Hazel 20 681 661
9 Alfred 33 683 650 9 Edith 25 683 658
10 Ralph 23 660 637 10 Frances 16 580 564
11 Elmer 36 654 618 11 Irene 21 581 560
12 Harold 15 595 580 12 Marie 8 496 488
13 Ernest 26 599 573 13 Martha 31 487 456
14 Eugene 49 578 529 14 Alice 10 426 416
15 Leonard 48 571 523 15 Helen 2 389 387
16 Har­ry 13 517 504 16 Ruth 5 350 345
17 Fran­cis 37 509 472 17 Rose 14 358 344
18 Willie 28 454 426 18 Annie 28 339 311
19 Roy 24 433 409 19 Clara 23 295 272
20 Wal­ter 11 356 345 20 Esther 30 297 267
21 Arthur 14 353 339 21 Josephine 33 260 227
22 Carl 20 357 337 22 Eva 39 215 176
23 Lawrence 34 344 310 23 Ruby 42 197 155
24 Albert 16 311 295 24 Mar­garet 3 130 127
25 Joe 38 321 283 25 Cather­ine 19 106 87
26 Theodore 42 313 271 26 Lau­ra 50 122 72
27 Louis 21 278 257 27 Mary 1 61 60
28 Leo 44 288 244 28 Eve­lyn 34 89 55
29 Frank 8 228 220 29 Anna 4 21 17
30 Ray­mond 22 188 166 30 Eliz­a­beth 6 9 3
31 George 4 137 133 31 Mil­dred 9 n/a 0
32 Edward 9 128 119 32 Flo­rence 11 n/a 0
33 Paul 17 124 107 33 Ethel 12 n/a 0
34 Hen­ry 10 116 106 34 Lil­lian 13 n/a 0
35 Peter 46 148 102 35 Gertrude 22 n/a 0
36 Ken­neth 47 109 62 36 Mabel 27 n/a 0
37 Richard 25 86 61 37 Bessie 32 n/a 0
38 Charles 6 59 53 38 Elsie 35 n/a 0
39 Robert 7 35 28 39 Pearl 36 n/a 0
40 Thomas 12 36 24 40 Agnes 37 n/a 0
41 John 1 17 16 41 Thel­ma 38 n/a 0
42 James 3 18 15 42 Myr­tle 40 n/a 0
43 William 2 11 9 43 Ida 41 n/a 0
44 Jack 41 46 5 44 Min­nie 43 n/a 0
45 Joseph 5 6 1 45 Vio­la 47 n/a 0
46 Samuel 31 23 -8 46 Nel­lie 48 n/a 0
47 David 29 14 -15 47 Grace 18 13 -5
48 Antho­ny 43 10 -33 48 Julia 45 33 -12
49 Andrew 40 5 -35 49 Emma 29 2 -27
50 Michael 39 2 -37 50 Sarah 46 12 -34

Most new par­ents want to give their child unique names and want to steer clear of the most over-used names. Yet if you tell your friends you’re nam­ing your boy Jacob or Joshua, they’ll all cheer you on. If your lit­tle girl goes by Emi­ly, Emma or Madi­son, they’ll think that’s dar­ling. Yet those are the top three boy and girl names for 2003.

They are tens of thou­sands of kids get­ting these top names every year. All of the kids with these names are going to be get­ting nick­names to dif­fer­en­ti­ate them from one anoth­er: just hope your lit­tle angel isn’t the one that gets tagged “The Ugly Emi­ly” or “The Stu­pid Joshua” by their third grade classmates!

There are def­i­nite trends in names. Cer­tain names tend to sound fresh and dar­ing even when they’re overused and trite. The only way to train your ear away from such trends is to method­i­cal­ly study the data (the New York Times had a fas­in­cat­ing arti­cle on all this when we were pon­der­ing Theo’s name, Where Have All the Lisas Gone?).

For­tu­nate­ly the U.S. Social Secu­ri­ty Admin­is­tra­tion pro­vides a list of the most pop­u­lar baby names by year, going back to the turn of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. Using this, my wife and I were able to choose “Theodore” for our first child’s name; born in 2003, he name is the 313th most pop­u­lar boy’s name and drop­ping. Yet it’s a known name and there have been great twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry folks who have answered to it (e.g., Dr. Suess, Theodore Geisel).

How is a par­ent to choose? One recent after­noon I cut and past­ed the top fifty boy and girl names of the first decade of the Twen­ti­eth Cen­tu­ry. I looked up their cur­rent sta­tus (the 2003 data) to see what move­ment has occured in their place­ment. The old names are still known but some have fall­en far out of use. Her­bert, for exam­ple, was the 32nd most pop­u­lar boy’s name in the first decade of the Twen­ti­eth Cen­tu­ry, but now ranks a dis­mal 930! If you want a name every­one knows but no one is giv­ing their kid, Her­bert’s your choice for boy’s and Edna’s your choice for girls.

Now these fall­en names prob­a­bly sound awk­ward. But that’s the point: they run counter to the trends. I’ll admit that some deserve their reduced sta­tus; I can­not imag­ine sad­dling a lit­tle girl with “Edna.” But in the list are some gems which have been undu­ly demot­ed by the trend-setters.

We’ve been very hap­py with “Theodore,” the 26th most fall­en name of the Twen­ti­eth Cen­tu­ry. He’s offi­cial­ly named after his great-great uncle. The social secu­ri­ty date­base assured us that the name was safe from trendiness.

So what will the new baby be named? Check in soon!! The due date is the end of August.

Update: drum­roll please.… Our new son’s name is Fran­cis! And fur­ther follow-up brought us Gre­go­ry and Lau­ra. We’re offi­cial­ly out of the baby-making game now but if we were look­ing for more, Walt and Dorothy would be our next picks of classic-but-uncommon names.

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150 thoughts on “Unpopular Baby Names: Avoiding the Jacobs, Emilys and Madisons”

  2. Well “Joe” _is_ right next to Theodore on the unpop­u­lar­i­ty charts. Unfor­tu­nate­ly “Joseph” is right there at num­ber 6 (I’m sure it’s even high­er in our town where every third male seems to be named “Joe.”)
    I get the feel­ing I’m going to get a lot of com­ments telling me that “Aman­da,” “Liz,” and “Pok­ie Mon” aren’t such bad names.…

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  3. If Jo(e) is good, then Jo(han) might also be okay. But if you’re not Nor­we­gian you’d be bet­ter off spelling it with two n’s: Johann, because the sec­ond n will be added any­way more often than not. Except when peo­ple think you’re John or Joanne or (I’m not mak­ing this up) Joli­can. The last error was on a mail­ing from Inter­nal Revenue.

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  4. I still like Alvin. Please con­sid­er it. I don’t think it will become trendy. It was 512 in 2003, 329 in 1900.

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  5. A lit­tle broth­er Alvin for Theodore, hmm? The prob­lem is that “Simon” is 240 and going up (it was 354 a decade ago) so that we’d risk trendi­ness on num­ber three by try­ing to single-handedly spawn “The Chip­munks”:http://​www​.tvtome​.com/​t​v​t​o​m​e​/​s​e​r​v​l​e​t​/​S​h​o​w​M​a​i​n​S​e​r​v​l​e​t​/​s​h​o​w​i​d​-​2​8​27/. I’ll _suggest_ it to Julie but don’t hold your breath.

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  6. Con­grat­u­a­tions! As a mem­ber of Nor­ris­town MM said on the birth of our Jakob, “anoth­er hope for the world”!
    We picked Jakob because it’s a fam­i­ly name. Its pop­u­lar­i­ty STUNNED me; I’d checked the list only to see how unpop­u­lar it was! But I could­n’t name him Emanuel, and I was­n’t nam­ing him George or James. Con­sid­er­ing his birth­day, we could have picked Phil. I say, pick a name you like, no mat­ter how pop­u­lar or unpopular.
     — S

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  8. My hus­band talked me into nam­ing our now three year old son Silas (which he picked out of the Book of Acts). I was­n’t sure whether that was in the same cat­e­go­ry with Her­bert and Edna or not. (I thought it would­n’t mat­ter since I was sure we were going to have a girl and name her Mary Alice, which I thought would go well with big broth­er Hen­ry.) But now I know anoth­er woman with a three year old blond boy named Silas — who almost went to the same preschool. You nev­er know when a name is going to come back.

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  9. Robin, I’d pre­fer to say that your hus­band was led by the Holy Spir­it to open the Book of Acts to find the name of Silas star­ing up at him. If Silas was good enough for the Apos­tle Paul, he’s good enough for me, I thought. Any­way, it was the right name for our most pre­cious and thor­ough­ly stur­dy younger son. (Per­haps some day he too will be wan­der­ing around Croa­t­ia con­vert­ing people!)
    There are many Google hits for Silas because a hunky par­tic­i­pant on the first edi­tion of the TV show “Sur­vivor” was named Silas. And there’s a Chris­t­ian rock band called Some­thing Like Silas. (Haven’t lis­tened to any of their songs, does­n’t real­ly appeal to me.)
    Many peo­ple first hear “Cyrus.” Many peo­ple asso­ciate it with Eliot’s “Silas Marn­er” (which I read for the first time only six months ago, and what a love­ly Chris­t­ian sto­ry it is!). A very few asso­ciate it with “Paul and Silas sit­ting in jail/with no one to go their bail.”
    And above all, many many bless­ings to Mar­tin, Julie and Theo!

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  10. I haven’t seen my name on there in a while… I am female and it is pro­nounced No L… as in the christ­mas song… although… I love my name because it’s unique, I nei­ther find it on the unpop­u­lar or on the pop­u­lar list so I guess it’s basi­cal­ly non-existant..

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  11. We had so much trou­ble pick­ing our daugh­ter’s name. We con­sid­ered Car­ris, but it sound­ed too much like my moth­er’s maid­en name of Gar­ris. We final­ly decid­ed to sad­dle her with Kay­la but to give her an unusural mid­dle name in case there were too many Kay­las in her class. Her mid­dle name is Eden.

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  12. Hi Staci,
    It’s hard to find a good name these days. All the KA- names are big now, aren’t they, in all sorts of per­mu­ta­tions and spellings. Are you call­ing her “Kay­la Eden” or just keep­ing “Eden” in back­up as a plan B? We’ve gone the known-but-unused nam­ing route but even so it’s amaz­ing how many peo­ple stut­ter over “Theo” or ask us how to spell it. The sur­prise with “Fran­cis” is how many peo­ple have smiled and shared the sto­ry of a favorite grand­par­ent with that name.

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  13. kay­la is awe­some thats the name ive picked if i ever have a girl but i cant fig­ure out a mid­dle name with it ,

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  14. My name is VERY unpop­u­lar (KERiley)I love it​.My name is not Emi­ly for shure.

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  15. Our son is a Theo too (born in 2001, so as there are more and more Theos these days [so it seems]) we are at the begin­ning of the trend. I think most peo­ple these days use the cen­sus data pro­vid­ed by thinkbaby​names​.com and look for more unique, less trendy names. So every­one seems to find the more tra­di­tion­al names unique, but this seems to now be a trend.

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  16. Hi Lau­ra: You’re see­ing a lot of Theo’s? “Theodore” was the 306th most pop­u­lar baby boy’s name in 2001, when you named your baby and the 305th most pop­u­lar last year. The num­bers aren’t show­ing a trend yet. It’d be smart of par­ents to use the cen­sus data (pro­vid­ed orig­i­nal­ly by the Social Secu­ri­ty Admin­is­tra­tion of course) but I ‘m not sure they are…

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  17. Thank you for blog­ging this. My name is Emi­ly and when I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s in New York City, I did­n’t know any­one with my name. I loved being the only Emi­ly my life. When I was in class I hat­ed it when we had to dif­fer­en­ti­ate between which Jen­nifer or which Michael. Now, I will have to dread when all these lit­tle Emi­ly’s grow up and cause every­one con­fu­sion. I will prob­a­bly be described as Old Emi­ly. *sigh*

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      1. Noel has to be one of the coolest/prettiest names i’ve ever heard. I can nev­er find my name on any lists either.…(my name is Clarissa)

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      2. !!! I Sarah Post This Tes­ti­mo­ny Coz Am Preg­nant Thanks To Dr.Ukaka

        with the preg­nan­cy spell Dr.Ukaka did for me, i was able to con­ceive with­in 4weeks, after he cast the preg­nan­cy spell for me he told me that i will have to sleep with my part­ner so that i can put the spell to work. after i have slept with my hus­band i became preg­nant 4week let­ter, when i went for my preg­nan­cy check up the Doc con­firm that i am a week preg­nant. with this great priv­i­lege i want to thank Dr.Ukaka and i will also rec­om­mend him to oth­ers that need help to con­ceive to con­tact him via his email address freedomlovespell@hotmail.com to those who seek his great help.….….

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  19. Hi Lau­ren: oh those are great names! Both of ours have been boys but Lucy’s one we talked about. We haven’t known the sex either time; time we face the deci­sion we had set­tled on a girl name of Dorothy or Dorothea (right next to Lucille on the list!).
    For those read­ing this, the 2006 fig­ures debuted a few weeks ago. “Theodore” is up about six places in pop­u­lar­i­ty, while “Fran­cis” has dropped anoth­er 25 or so.

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  20. Just a note on the “Ka” names that Mar­tin is men­tion­ing. I work with small chil­dren dai­ly (and old­er ones too, for that mat­ter). Yes­ter­day I had a gym­nas­tics class with the fol­low­ing. No joke. I always get tongue-tied:
    Kayleigh
    Bailey
    Kaitlin
    Katie
    McKinleigh
    I also have the fol­low­ing, some­times in multiples:
    Kay­la (MANY)
    Kylie
    Carly
    Kasey
    Katrina
    Cai­lene (say “Kay-leena”)
    Kimmy
    Cassidy
    Cara
    Karla
    And also:
    Alissa/Alyssa/Yuleza (pro­nounced Jah-lissa) (mul­ti­ple)
    Marissa
    Mia (a few)
    Maia (a couple)
    Madison/Madysen/Maddy/etc. (MANY)
    McKenna/Michal/Myangel/McKinleigh (one each, but you get the picture)
    Aman­da (a few)
    Samantha/Sam (and also Sara/h) (a few)
    Larissa
    Lissa
    Brianna
    Lianna
    Ari­an­na (a couple)
    Alexandra
    Hanna(h)
    Hailey
    Ashley
    Jor­dan (mul­ti­ple)
    Tay­lor (many)
    Tabitha
    Eve/Eva
    Emi­ly (many)
    Abby/Abigail (MANY)
    Gabby/Gabriella/Gabrielle (MANY)
    Julie/Julianna/Julia
    Jessica/Jesika
    Chloe/Zoe
    Grace
    Olivia
    Nicole/Nicolina/Nicki/Nicolette
    Brooke (a cou­ple old­er ones)
    Brittany/Britney/Brittney/etc.
    That’s a sam­pling. As a gen­er­al note, few peo­ple devi­ate from the above list. Most of the kids I teach have one of the above names, embrac­ing names that end with the “anna,” “abby,” “ah,” and “issa” and/or begin with “Kah,” “Kay,” or a sim­i­lar sound. You also see place names as pop­u­lar, gen­der neu­tral type names, and the whole “last names as first names” trends. I have well over one hun­dred stu­dents and know sev­er­al dozen more, and teach birth­day par­ties for dozens more. That means most of these names are exces­sive­ly (IMO) repeated.

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  21. I notice that a lot of peo­ple think they’re being orig­i­nal with their name choic­es when in actu­al­i­ty, they’re not. So that said, if I were to give my baby a plain name (John), am I being orig­i­nal by giv­ing him this name? With all the Jacobs and Madis­ons and Tay­lors and Haleys out there, could “John” actu­al­ly be the more unusu­al choice? “John” seem to place around #20 on the Social Secu­ri­ty site – this seems odd to me as I’ve nev­er heard “John” around the play­ground and fur­ther­more, when I google “John”, most peo­ple lump it under in the “bor­ing” category.
    Any­way, just want to see what peo­ple have to say about using “bor­ing” names to be original.

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  22. Well this is inter­est­ing — my dad is 1 of 6 chil­dren, 5 boys and 1 girl. All the boys are on that list, with Fred the most ‘fall­en’ and James and Jack the least. I guess Geral­dine was­n’t pop­u­lar in the ear­ly 1900s (they were all born a few decades after that).
    I find it curi­ous that you did­n’t put the girls’ names that have com­plete­ly fall­en off the list at the top of “most fall­en”, but hey, it’s your method, you decide! :^) Also inter­est­ing to note that none of the boys’ names com­plete­ly fell off — I’ve read in var­i­ous places that girls’ names seem more sub­ject to trends and fash­ion. This seems to rein­force that!

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  23. @Tricia: yes, sci­en­tif­ic method might have dic­tat­ed that I put the off-the-list girls up top. I orig­i­nal­ly com­piled this as an aid to choos­ing a name for my second-born and just could­n’t bring myself to con­sid­er a name that had gone so far out of pop­u­lar­i­ty that it was out of the top 1000!

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  24. I’m Bernadette. My father named me after a Saint. There are not that many Bernadet­te’s out there…

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  25. im only 11 and i want to know what my name meens.theres only shan­ice on web­sites like these does my name meen the same?

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  26. i would have nev­er thought of these names i thought about nam­ing my baby andrew or vengense

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  27. i would have nev­er thought of these names i thought about nam­ing my baby andrew or vengense

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  28. hey i’m a carl!!! it def­i­nite­ly has­n’t helped me score with the ladies…they call me nick or kyle… go figure

    i knew enda was on the list though!! def­i­nite­ly bertha!

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  29. hey i’m a carl!!! it def­i­nite­ly has­n’t helped me score with the ladies…they call me nick or kyle… go figure

    i knew enda was on the list though!! def­i­nite­ly bertha!

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  30. My name is Park­er, but i’m female. Born 1994. No one I meet has ever heard of a girl named Park­er, and few have heard of even a boy named it. Every­one asks me if that’s not my last name. No. My mid­dle name, Loren (think Sophia Loren), is also unheard of and most peo­ple read it ‘Lau­ren’. It gets on my nerves. Can peo­ple not accept unusu­al names in Amer­i­ca? Appar­ent­ly they have to learn to cope.

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  31. My name is Park­er, but i’m female. Born 1994. No one I meet has ever heard of a girl named Park­er, and few have heard of even a boy named it. Every­one asks me if that’s not my last name. No. My mid­dle name, Loren (think Sophia Loren), is also unheard of and most peo­ple read it ‘Lau­ren’. It gets on my nerves. Can peo­ple not accept unusu­al names in Amer­i­ca? Appar­ent­ly they have to learn to cope.

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    2. Your not the only one with a dif­fer­ent name my name is not so pop­u­lar but i spell it dif­fer­ent. and it anoys me that some peo­ple pro­nounce it Kaile like what is this. 

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  35. my top 5 baby names

    Boys:
    1.Randy
    2.Brad
    3.Mark
    4.Kandem
    5.Erick

    Girls:
    1. Kandie
    2.Lacie
    3.Erika
    4.Kordelia
    5.Ginger

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  36. my top 5 baby names

    Boys:
    1.Randy
    2.Brad
    3.Mark
    4.Kandem
    5.Erick

    Girls:
    1. Kandie
    2.Lacie
    3.Erika
    4.Kordelia
    5.Ginger

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  37. I think a cute old fash­ioned baby name is Da da da da.… Car­ol Anne Grace Driggers(my last name)
    my mom said she would love to name me that. I am 11 years old from Macon GA. my name is Clara-Ellen Grace Drig­gers. Old fash­ioned but girly and sporty at the same time I cant imag­ine being called anoth­er name like a used name such as.. Reil­ly or Katy or eliz­a­beth. Though they are cute hey are not at all my style! Hey ever think about call­ing you boy a nick name like Fran­ci or some­thing? Oh, and Fran­cis is so adorable!

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  38. I think a cute old fash­ioned baby name is Da da da da.… Car­ol Anne Grace Driggers(my last name)
    my mom said she would love to name me that. I am 11 years old from Macon GA. my name is Clara-Ellen Grace Drig­gers. Old fash­ioned but girly and sporty at the same time I cant imag­ine being called anoth­er name like a used name such as.. Reil­ly or Katy or eliz­a­beth. Though they are cute hey are not at all my style! Hey ever think about call­ing you boy a nick name like Fran­ci or some­thing? Oh, and Fran­cis is so adorable!

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  39. My son’s name is Theo(dore), born in 1994. I found this while try­ing to deter­mine how pop­u­lar his name was. I hope both your kids find great hap­pi­ness with their names. My 8th grad­er loves his name… although he is actu­al­ly one of two at his mid­dle school! We hon­ored many with his name… my great grand­fa­ther, Ted­dy Roo­sevelt, Dr. Seuss, Theo Van Gogh, Theo Van Does­burg, and the name’s mean­ing is won­der­ful as well. Theo has found his name is very pop­u­lar in books, TV and movies, so it must appeal to cre­ative types like me. Steven Spiel­berg (sp?) has a son Theo.

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  40. My son’s name is Theo(dore), born in 1994. I found this while try­ing to deter­mine how pop­u­lar his name was. I hope both your kids find great hap­pi­ness with their names. My 8th grad­er loves his name… although he is actu­al­ly one of two at his mid­dle school! We hon­ored many with his name… my great grand­fa­ther, Ted­dy Roo­sevelt, Dr. Seuss, Theo Van Gogh, Theo Van Does­burg, and the name’s mean­ing is won­der­ful as well. Theo has found his name is very pop­u­lar in books, TV and movies, so it must appeal to cre­ative types like me. Steven Spiel­berg (sp?) has a son Theo.

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  41. My Grandson,born two days ago, is named Theo. He is lucky that my g/parents idea has not been fol­lowed. My father was named after the ship that sank on his birth day.He lived as Titan­ic for 61 years.

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  43. My Grandson,born two days ago, is named Theo. He is lucky that my g/parents idea has not been fol­lowed. My father was named after the ship that sank on his birth day.He lived as Titan­ic for 61 years. 

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    2. I think that name is very cre­ative and i like it a lot. Your father, in my opin­ion, is very lucky to have a name like that.

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  44. Your not the only one with a dif­fer­ent name my name is not so pop­u­lar but i spell it dif­fer­ent. and it anoys me that some peo­ple pro­nounce it Kaile like what is this.

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  45. I too have a bit of an unusu­al name, not many peo­ple are named Car­o­line even though there have been many famous Car­o­lines in his­to­ry. I am very hap­py that my mom chose to name both me and my sis­ter (Louise) less com­mon names, unlike the 3 Tay­lors or 3 Emilys that I know from school.

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  46. I too have a bit of an unusu­al name, not many peo­ple are named Car­o­line even though there have been many famous Car­o­lines in his­to­ry. I am very hap­py that my mom chose to name both me and my sis­ter (Louise) less com­mon names, unlike the 3 Tay­lors or 3 Emilys that I know from school. 

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  49. I love the name Flo­rance! And it’s hard to believe that John would have dropped. I thought it was quite pop­u­lar. I also like the name Samuel and Clarence… My name is Cia­rá Cailean-Candika Marte and peo­ple find that crazy in the USA! Since my first name is pro­nounced as Kira, then Kay-lynn, Can-Dee-Kuh, Mar-tee. They always pro­nounce it wrong… But I’m very sur­prised by many of these fall­en names. Dra­gos is a fall­en name too… Just not an Eng­lish name.

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  50. I love the name Flo­rance! And it’s hard to believe that John would have dropped. I thought it was quite pop­u­lar. I also like the name Samuel and Clarence… My name is Cia­rá Cailean-Candika Marte and peo­ple find that crazy in the USA! Since my first name is pro­nounced as Kira, then Kay-lynn, Can-Dee-Kuh, Mar-tee. They always pro­nounce it wrong… But I’m very sur­prised by many of these fall­en names. Dra­gos is a fall­en name too… Just not an Eng­lish name.

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  51. We have cho­sen Theodore for our son as well! It’s a name­sake, but we real­ly love it.

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  53. We have cho­sen Theodore for our son as well! It’s a name­sake, but we real­ly love it.

    Reply

      1. My full name is Athena Dane’ (pro­nounced Danay) and I love it. I have only met one oth­er Athena and a friend of mine just gave her daugh­ter my mid­dle name. I am preg­nant now and try­ing to find an unusu­al name but it is a lot hard­er than i thought. My grand­ma’s name was Gre­ta Theodo­ra so i have thought about Theo for a boy. i love the name Rae for a girl but i want it as a mid­dle name. Maybe Dae­lyn Rae or Joce­lyn, which my hus­band hates! I would love some suggestions!!! 

        Reply

        1. What about Raina (pro­nounces Rain‑a) or Renee (Ree-nee) They are both very beau­ti­ful names and unusual.

          Reply

        3. well i am soon to be mar­ried and i have loved this name that i made up when i was in 8th grade. akeeli rae that is going to be my first daugh­ters name. i have looked every­where and there is no word or name exact­ly like it. its pro­nounced (a‑key-lee)

          Reply

  56. I’ve been look­ing at least pop­u­lar names because I know that in the high school I go to there are at least ten Kay­las, Stepha­nies, Emilys, and so on. There is also one Kaleigh, which I have to say is the one that annoys me the most. 

    If I ever have a daugh­ter I want to name her Kath­leen San­ford, Kath­leen for my grand­moth­er and San­ford because that’s my mom’s mid­dle name and I think that it’s real­ly cool. That or Flo­rence after my great great aunt.

    Some oth­er inter­est­ing names in my fam­i­ly are Park Tres­lin (my uncle) Anne Elise (my aunt) and Aza­lia Ber­nice (great grandmother)

    Reply

  57. I’ve been look­ing at least pop­u­lar names because I know that in the high school I go to there are at least ten Kay­las, Stepha­nies, Emilys, and so on. There is also one Kaleigh, which I have to say is the one that annoys me the most. 

    If I ever have a daugh­ter I want to name her Kath­leen San­ford, Kath­leen for my grand­moth­er and San­ford because that’s my mom’s mid­dle name and I think that it’s real­ly cool. That or Flo­rence after my great great aunt.

    Some oth­er inter­est­ing names in my fam­i­ly are Park Tres­lin (my uncle) Anne Elise (my aunt) and Aza­lia Ber­nice (great grandmother) 

    Reply

  58. I love it! Sur­prised that my name isn’t on the list! I love it, but I’m 23 and it’s not very pop­u­lar (prob­a­bly why I love it) My mid­dle name is on it though. See, when I look up my kids’ names, I get upset when I see that a name is with­in the top 400. I like the clas­sic, old, 1900-esque names. Mar­garet, I real­ly like Mar­garet. or Katharine (which I think is num­ber 900 some) but not Kather­ine which is 45.

    Reply

  59. I love it! Sur­prised that my name isn’t on the list! I love it, but I’m 23 and it’s not very pop­u­lar (prob­a­bly why I love it) My mid­dle name is on it though. See, when I look up my kids’ names, I get upset when I see that a name is with­in the top 400. I like the clas­sic, old, 1900-esque names. Mar­garet, I real­ly like Mar­garet. or Katharine (which I think is num­ber 900 some) but not Kather­ine which is 45.

    Reply

  60. this is a cool orginaza­tion of pop­u­lar and unpop­u­lar names. I think it is cool to find your own name on one of the lists. I am num­ber 48 on the unpop­u­lar names list.

    Reply

  62. this is a cool orginaza­tion of pop­u­lar and unpop­u­lar names. I think it is cool to find your own name on one of the lists. I am num­ber 48 on the unpop­u­lar names list.

    Reply

  63. Wow! Your web­site is neat and true​.my name is Alexan­dra and my sis­ters names are Tatiana and Natalya. my broth­ers name is nicholas. I nev­er knew any one with the same name as me before. I have only heard Tatiana one time oth­er than her. Nev­er heard any body named Natalya. My mom is going to have a baby any day now and she want to name him Con­stan­tine. We all have Russ­ian names.

    Reply

  64. Wow! Your web­site is neat and true​.my name is Alexan­dra and my sis­ters names are Tatiana and Natalya. my broth­ers name is nicholas. I nev­er knew any one with the same name as me before. I have only heard Tatiana one time oth­er than her. Nev­er heard any body named Natalya. My mom is going to have a baby any day now and she want to name him Con­stan­tine. We all have Russ­ian names.

    Reply

  65. my name is tommie.and i’m a girl actu­al­ly.(:
    my mom was gonna spell it ‘tomi.‘but i’m
    kin­da glad she didn’t.and my mid­dle name
    is lynn.tommie lynn.i could­n’t see myself
    being named any­thing else,it’s pret­ty
    unique of a name.but when i was younger,
    i got picked on because of it.hahahah.

    Reply

  66. my name is tommie.and i’m a girl actually.(:
    my mom was gonna spell it ‘tomi.‘but i’m
    kin­da glad she didn’t.and my mid­dle name
    is lynn.tommie lynn.i could­n’t see myself
    being named any­thing else,it’s pretty
    unique of a name.but when i was younger,
    i got picked on because of it.hahahah.

    Reply

    2. I know a girl named Tom­mie too!  I thought she was the only one.  It goes to show there is nev­er just one! 🙂

      Reply

    1. i named my cat is Sele­na ..i thought it was a fit­ting and love­ly name.some peo­ple could not get there heads around it, they would always end up call­ing her lina or nina lol.If i had a child i would have called her that,very unusual.

      Reply

  69. I don’t real­ly like the way my name is spelled, but i’m find­ing out that not many poe­ple spell it like i do so i think that that’s pret­ty cool. I like these girl names because their so unike. 

    1. Ares­sa
    2. Arisel­la
    3. Azu­ra
    4. Kira
    5. Meridia
    6. Thea
    7. Bria

    Reply

  70. I don’t real­ly like the way my name is spelled, but i’m find­ing out that not many poe­ple spell it like i do so i think that that’s pret­ty cool. I like these girl names because their so unike. 

    1. Ares­sa
    2. Arisella
    3. Azura
    4. Kira
    5. Meridia
    6. Thea
    7. Bria 

    Reply

  71. My names is Mari­na (Michele; mid­dle name) uncom­mon in the US, I hear its kin­da pop­u­lar in rus­sia though. Ive only met 2 ppl in my 22 years w/ my name, one was russian.

    Reply

  72. My names is Mari­na (Michele; mid­dle name) uncom­mon in the US, I hear its kin­da pop­u­lar in rus­sia though. Ive only met 2 ppl in my 22 years w/ my name, one was russian.

    Reply

    1. That my friends name. 🙂 i am Renee meet two peo­ple with that name on was a girl who bite peo­ple she did­n’t like and every­one thought i was her.…so sad cuz i was the new kid and did­n’t understand

      Reply

  73. i named my cat is Sele­na ..i thought it was a fit­ting and love­ly name.some peo­ple could not get there heads around it, they would always end up call­ing her lina or nina lol.If i had a child i would have called her that,very unusual.

    Reply

  74. I LOVE the name Kay­dence Dawn-Marie (my Fiance’s Mom’s first and mid­dle name was Dawn Marie..RIP) I heard the name (Cadence) in a movie… “Amer­i­can Wed­ding” and thought it was an awesome/cute name. So I made up my own lit­tle spelling.. i’ve been in love with that name since i was in 8th grade (im now 22) =D
    I wish that was my name.. but instead Kim­ber­ly (after Gem and the Holo­grams) from my sis­ter.. got picked on alot in school.. i was nick­named “Kim­ber­ly the Pink Pow­er Ranger”

    Reply

  75. I LOVE the name Kay­dence Dawn-Marie (my Fiance’s Mom’s first and mid­dle name was Dawn Marie..RIP) I heard the name (Cadence) in a movie… “Amer­i­can Wed­ding” and thought it was an awesome/cute name. So I made up my own lit­tle spelling.. i’ve been in love with that name since i was in 8th grade (im now 22) =D
    I wish that was my name.. but instead Kim­ber­ly (after Gem and the Holo­grams) from my sis­ter.. got picked on alot in school.. i was nick­named “Kim­ber­ly the Pink Pow­er Ranger”

    Reply

  76. My name is Leigh­na, and you know, I LOVE my name. I don’t care what oth­ers think. They call me “Leigh­nie.” And you know what, I LOVE it.

    Reply

  77. My name is Leigh­na, and you know, I LOVE my name. I don’t care what oth­ers think. They call me “Leigh­nie.” And you know what, I LOVE it.

    Reply

  78. I real­ly don’t like my name. It’s too com­mon for my tastes; Christi­na Javene Thomp­son.
    I like unusu­al names that nobody has thought of using before, like:
    Asura (‘demon’ in Hin­du / aSUr­ah)
    Mit­sukai (‘angel’ in Japan­ese / MIT­skai)
    Engel (‘angel’ in Ger­man / ENGyel)

    Reply

  79. I real­ly don’t like my name. It’s too com­mon for my tastes; Christi­na Javene Thompson.
    I like unusu­al names that nobody has thought of using before, like:
    Asura (‘demon’ in Hin­du / aSUrah)
    Mit­sukai (‘angel’ in Japan­ese / MITskai)
    Engel (‘angel’ in Ger­man / ENGyel)

    Reply

  80. I have a jour­nal where i wrote a lot of names (over 200) and there is prob­a­bly not enough space for me to put them here. (im 12) here are a few… or alot…

    Girls:

    Ambrielle
    Rosalina
    Jordan/Jordyn
    Chelsea/Chelsie
    Audrey/Aubree
    Celestina
    Aliana
    Gabrielle
    Annemarie
    Alexan­dra Mae
    Arabella
    Lau­ren Keyana (like Keke Palmer)
    Marisela
    Miranda
    Mackenzie
    Jadyn
    Leah
    Serena/Selena
    Liliana
    Davey
    Esme
    Marianne
    Richelle
    Hallie
    Tiana
    Marissa
    Makena
    Anarea
    Serenity
    Allie Brianne
    Serafina
    Ciandra
    Rose Alana
    Alexa Janelle
    Kodi
    Aphrodite
    Kylie
    Aurelia
    Anahi (anna-ee)
    Lind­say Maryse
    Shanelle

    Boys:

    Daniel Jacob
    Antho­ny Manuel
    Luke
    Randy
    Kevin
    Brandon
    Justin
    Michael
    Aaron
    Christopher
    Alexander
    James
    Jonathan
    Jared
    Joshua
    Caleb
    Andrew
    Jackson
    Darren
    Cody

    Reply

    1. Hi Lola Jacque­line Gonzalez!

      Hey, I’m 12 years old too! 

      Like the list! By the way, I think a great name is Cas­sidy. It’s not that pop­u­lar and a cute nick­name is Cassie. ( My name’s Cas­sidy, though, and I like it spelled more unique like Cas­si) It can also be spelled Kassidy. 

      Reply

  81. My name is Kendelle (female 26) and I did­n’t know any­one with that name grow­ing up. A year or so ago I heard some­one call­ing my name at the mall and a lit­tle girl answered to it, so I guess there are some oth­ers out there now, but still not many.

    Reply

  82. I absolute­ly agree with you, both my hus­band and I have some­what trendy names. My hus­bands name is way too com­mon for our gen­er­a­tion. My name is also quite com­mon, but is not as com­mon in North Amer­i­ca as in oth­er coun­tries that I’ve lived in, but still I know lots of peo­ple with that name. We named our old­est son Ronald, which was very com­mon about two gen­er­a­tions past. It does­n’t sound weird but you also don’t find too many peo­ple nam­ing their chil­dren that today. We are cur­rent­ly expect­ing our sec­ond son and plan­ning to name him Theodore (that’s how I ran into your arti­cle). I like the nick­name Theo, not a big fan of Ted (for some rea­son too many peo­ple are choos­ing Ted as a name for their pet!).

    Reply

  83. Hel­lo
    My name is Breian­na (Prononced bree-r-na) Neva Price
    i love it to be very hon­est although peo­ple always say my name wrong which annoys me abit lol. Recent­ly i just had twins boy and a girl and i called them
    Una Jay­die Allon (Girl)
    Bricen Chase Allon (Boy)
    I Love unusu­al names i think it makes the per­son you are very intresting
    🙂 xx

    Reply

  84. Hel­lo Mar­tin! We live in Ger­many and also have a baby boy named Theodor, nick­name Theo. The baby is about 1 year old and all the time the peo­ple look at us very sur­pris­ing­ly and keep ask­ing us how we could name our son with such a old-fashioned name? that’s how I land­ed on your site. I was just look­ing for per­sons with teh same name to see how many we are and if the peo­ple are hap­py with their names as I was already to change the baby’s name — all those speech­es that the baby will be unhap­py and not lucky in the future made me just ner­vous and unsure that our choice was cor­rect. By the way, in Ger­many the name is geti­ing a bit pop­u­lar if we com­pare the last 10 years. 

    Reply

  85. Okay, I read Twi­light. (100% Fact: Twilight=The best book ever). And I was writ­ing a sto­ry myself. I was want­i­ng to use beau­ti­ful, old, unpop­u­lar names for my char­ac­ters, and… HELP!!!!!

    -R.Lite 14, female

    Reply

    1.  You need to read the blog rea­son­ing­with­vam­pires on tum­blr if you think twi­light is excep­tion­al. Her use of gram­mar is appalling and her char­ac­ter devel­op­ment is weak at best. Please do not emu­late Stephanie Mey­ers writing.

      Reply

  86. Ciao, I’m Sha­jneen, (10 years old). I guess ur think­ing thet WHO THE HELL NAMED HER THAT!!
    the truth is thet im the only per­son in my whole CITY to have this name. (done by sur­vey!) Peo­ple actu­al­ly LIKE this name so my advice.….….….….….….……
    U will not regret it if u name ur kid/dog/cat/goldfish/lamp/umbrella/turtle/flagpost this *Most uncom­mon name in this century*

    Reply

  87. Am always hear­ing that ‘Melody’ is a pret­ty name, but not many girls are named that. Notice that it does not appear in pop­u­lar or unpop­u­lar baby names. Guess my name’s off the charts! How­ev­er, that’s okay. It’s nice to have a unique name, dif­fer­ent from all the Marys, Bet­tys and Emilys out there.

    As far as unpop­u­lar boys’ names, how about Per­ci­val? It seems to be so unpop­u­lar it does­n’t appear on any list, either.

    Reply

  89. Hey, my name is Emi­ly and I know you might think that that is a BORING name because tons of peo­ple have that name, but the rea­son so many peo­ple have it is because it’s an AWESOME name! Just name your child Skyler, or Rokeyl and have them have the nick­name Rokey (Pro­nounced Rocky, but it being spelled dif­fer­ent­ly is so much more unique) or Cecilia(nickname CeCe) if they are a girl. For a boy Fly­nn would be a cool name, or maybe Duce. Have some kids with cool, fun, unique names. They will turn out pret­ty cool

    Reply

    3. Wow, Kmk830, All those names are from the dis­ney chan­nel show “Shake It Up”. And you thought nobody would notice.…
      By the way, i like the name Emi­ly! Ive always want­ed that name.

      Reply

    4. You Watch shake it up im guess­ing your prob­a­bly young and why would u coment on baby names if you are young…And my names Hol­ly Becuase I was born near christmas

      Reply

  90. lol, by the time you have a baby that name will be far from unique. My daugh­ter is 5 and she is Kay­dence Marie. I also know of almost 10 Kay­dence’s who live in my area. 😀 

    But still a great name and I would­n’t have picked a dif­fer­ent name for my daugther.

    Reply

  91. I named my girls Zoie Michelle and Ashia Nicole, I love their names. At the time I was preg­net with Zoie it was unpop­u­lar. As for Ashia every­one always pro­nounces it wrong…when its pro­nounced Aw- sha! It is very dif­fer­ent and have only met two peo­ple with that name. As for a boys name, I have thought and thought of names and can’t ever come up with one that just sticks.

    Reply

    1. I do like that name Park­er after read­ing every­one elses post but by tomor­row it will be a name that I would have for­goten about!

      Reply

  92. I want to use beau­ti­ful, unpop­u­lar, old fash­ioned names that flow for a book I’m writ­ing and I need help! Please reply, thank you!

    Reply

    1. Cas­si
      Cassie
      Kassi
      Kassie
      Ruth
      Stella
      Sonya
      Zella
      Rosemary
      Myra
      Lila
      Ellen
      Constance
      Annabelle

      Hope this helps! These are all girl names, sorry!
      By the way my names Cassi!

      Reply

  93. Hey, my name is Han­na and here in Fin­land it’s not unusu­al name. I like my name and I don’t have any nick­name because nobody has­n’t ever found a good one. Few of my friends call me my last­name ‘Hir­vo­nen’ or mix my first and last­name ‘Hir­voshan­na’. I have also sec­ond­name and it is Maria what are very usu­al here. When my par­ents were think­ing of name for me they made a choise between Han­na, Saara and Hei­di, and they deside Han­na because my grand­grand­moth­er was Han­na. I love more Hei­di than my own name but now I have maybe five Hei­di in my friends so it is absolute­ly ok to be Han­na! But I love all unpop­u­lar names and that’s the rea­son why I am now in this web­site. When I have chil­dren in some day I am sure I’ll use my time to think that they’ll get beau­ti­ful names.

    Reply

  94. I’m 17 and a girl… and my par­ents called me Maverick…my dad loved the show and he thought it would be ‘cool’ to name a girl a boy’s name. It’s ok now… but I still get weird looks when I tell peo­ple my name…

    Reply

  95. I like Emi­ly name. The mean­ing of Emi­ly is “rival; labo­ri­ous; eager”. It sounds a loy­al, hum­ble, deter­mine, beau­ti­ful, love­able, wise per­son. baby­names

    Reply

  96. I just hap­pened to notice, its Dr Seuss not Suess. Assum­ing you’re talk­ing about the famous chil­dren’s author…

    Reply

  97. My first and mid­dle name is Kylee Jean. In the first 13 years of my life I met 1 oth­er Kylee or Kylie. But now my name is on the top 100. 

    My mom picked Jean because it was my dad’s deceased moth­er’s name. And since she gave me my dad’s mom’s mid­dle name she want­ed to name me after one of her par­ents but I guess she did­n’t like the name ‘Judy.’ And she did­n’t want to give me the name Lee even as a mid­dle name (5 of my 20 cousins have that as a mid­dle name and my dad does too) plus she loved her friend’s name which was Ky. Just Ky. So she was smart enough to com­bine the too to get Kylee. But now there are a bunch of lit­tle Kylie’s run­ning around and I’m stuck with this now com­mon name. (which I still love) But I love the unique spelling. But the only oth­er Kylee I have met had the mid­dle name Jean too so I guess my name isn’t as uncom­mon as I once thought it was…

    Reply

    1. !!! I Sarah Post This Tes­ti­mo­ny Coz Am Preg­nant Thanks To Dr.Ukaka

      with the preg­nan­cy spell Dr.Ukaka did for me, i was able to con­ceive with­in 4weeks, after he cast the preg­nan­cy spell for me he told me that i will have to sleep with my part­ner so that i can put the spell to work. after i have slept with my hus­band i became preg­nant 4week let­ter, when i went for my preg­nan­cy check up the Doc con­firm that i am a week preg­nant. with this great priv­i­lege i want to thank Dr.Ukaka and i will also rec­om­mend him to oth­ers that need help to con­ceive to con­tact him via his email address freedomlovespell@hotmail.com to those who seek his great help.

      Reply

  98. You may say those names are Bor­ing names. my name is emilee. And emily/emilee ect… is a very pop­u­lar name. in 1999 it was the #1 most pop­u­lar name.and has been in the top 10 for years. this might be your opin­ion on these names but don’t go try­ing to make them facts. i have done alot of research on these names and they are very pop­u­lar. i am flat­tered that alot of peo­ple have that name. it is a TIMELESS name, not just trendy,but it fits in every­where! And there are alot of ways to make it a unique name. Just because you don’t like it does­n’t mean no one else should. stand­ing up for my name…

    Reply

    1. I like that name! By the way, you should check spelling and punc­tu­a­tion errors. You need to cap­i­tal­ize your sen­tences and “alot’ isn’t a word. It’s two sim­ple words. “A lot”

      Reply

    1. My name is Alis­sa, I don’t mind it but peo­ple nev­er spell it right, Birth­day cards from my grand­par­ents were always fun­ny because every year they spelled it differently. 

      Reply

  101. hi im kat­lyn, my dad said he was going for an un pop­uar name, but resent­ly there’s been bunch­es of kait­lyns, caitlins, and kaitlin’s, and every­bodys been call­ing me Cat-lyn instead of kat­lyn.    The name’s I’ve cho­sen for my kids are:
    Sky­lar Renee (Skii, prou­nounced Ski as in sking)
    Jas­min Jenee  (Jayza pro­nounced Jay-za)
    Andrew Alexan­der (Andy for short) 

    Reply

  104. Um… but the apos­tro­phes in your title are incor­rect. An apos­tro­phe with a name indi­cates pos­ses­sion or a con­trac­tion. Emi­ly’s means “Emi­ly is” or some­thing like “that’s Emi­ly’s pen.” For reg­u­lar plu­rals, you need no apos­tro­phe. Your title should be:

    Unpop­u­lar Baby Names: Avoid­ing the Jacobs, Emilys and Madisons

    Inter­est­ing arti­cle, though. Just those apos­tro­phes that appear here and there with the names both­er me a bit.
     

    Reply

    1. Don­na: cor­rect!, and thank you very much for point­ing this out. You can tell that in 2005 I was between edit­ing jobs and so not obsessive-compulsive about look­ing up all rules in Chica­go Man­u­al of Style (rule 7.8 in the cur­rent 16th edi­tion). Now that I’m back work­ing as a pro­fes­sion­al edi­tor I cringe at the error. Luck­i­ly the inter­net is for­giv­ing and the offend­ing apos­tro­phes are gone with a few clicks of a mouse!

      Reply

    1. My cous­in’s son in named Wyatt, he’s near­ly a year old. Where he lives in Syd­ney it is cer­tain­ly not com­mon. He has one Amer­i­can and one Aus­tralian par­ent. I have since met anoth­er infant Wyatt- maybe it’s on its way to pop­u­lar­i­ty in Aus?

      Reply

  109. I love Stel­la, it has my moms name Ella in it, which peo­ple have gone crazy nam­ing girls ella lol and i love my name Patreese pro­nounced Patrice and i love Trish or Trisha

    Reply

  110. My name is Norah Kath­leen .…nei­ther are mod­ern and nei­ther are pop­u­lar, not when I was born and still not 64 years lat­er, although I can­not help my sur­name of Her­bert. I used to hate my first name when I was a child and a teenag­er but I’ve only ever met 2 oth­er women with my name but they were Nora, so def­i­nite­ly uncom­mon names.

    Reply

  111. when i have chil­dren; the will be named… (boys… Klarke Aaron…Edward Scott…Carter Michael);; (girls… Lina Elaine…Bethanee Elizabeth…Dana Michelle…);; ((i have a hard­er time com­ing up with girls names than boys;; why is that??…))

    Reply

  113. !!! I Sarah Post This Tes­ti­mo­ny Coz Am Preg­nant Thanks To Dr.Ukaka

    with the preg­nan­cy spell Dr.Ukaka did for me, i was able to con­ceive with­in 4weeks, after he cast the preg­nan­cy spell for me he told me that i will have to sleep with my part­ner so that i can put the spell to work. after i have slept with my hus­band i became preg­nant 4week let­ter, when i went for my preg­nan­cy check up the Doc con­firm that i am a week preg­nant. with this great priv­i­lege i want to thank Dr.Ukaka and i will also rec­om­mend him to oth­ers that need help to con­ceive to con­tact him via his email address freedomlovespell@hotmail.com to those who seek his great help.

    Reply

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