Cool, unusual girls’ names: The best 100

Posted in Name my baby
by Lorain County Moms

nameberry.com

Our challenge this week was to bring you “cool uncommon baby names.” Our criteria: Scour the 25,000 names given to 25 or fewer babies last year and pick the 100 best.

Now we’re going to bring you the 200 best, 100 for girls and another 100 for boys (next week). These cool unusual girls’ names have deep roots, are attractive, can fit into contemporary life, yet are not on the brink of widespread discovery.

If you’d like to pore over the master list of girls’ names used in the U.S. last year (for five or more children, as per privacy laws), we now include it on nameberry (http://nameberry.com/blog/popular-baby-names/girls-names-2009). And true name nerds or obsessive name searchers can go here 9 (http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/limits.html) to download the entire zip file of all the names used every year stretching back to 1880. If you want to wade through the rosters yourself, we’d love to hear your picks for best undiscovered names!
But we warn you, the lists are monsters, and the further down you go on the list, the more names there are: There are 15,000 used for 25 or fewer girls alone. Here, what we think are the 100 best cool unusual girls’ names:

1. ADIRA
2. ALBANY
3. ALBERTA
4. AMABEL
5. AMBROSIA
6. ANNORA
7. ANOUK
8. ANTONINA
9. AUGUSTINA
10. AUSTEN
11. BEA
12. BELLAMY
13. BIRDIE
14. BLANCHE
15. BRANWEN
16. CAIA
17. CARMELITA
18. CELESTIA
19. CERYS
20. CICELY
21. CIRCE
22. CLEMENTINA
23. CLIO
24. CORIN
25. CORNELIA
26. CYRA
27. DARIELA
28. DESTIN
29. DILLON
30. DOLLY
31. DOMENICA
32. DOMINO
33. EASTON
34. ELECTRA
35. ELEONORA
36. ELIZABELLA
37. ELSPETH
38. FEDERICA
39. FINN
40. FINOLA
41. FLEUR
42. FRANNY
43. GRACIA
44. GRAY
45. GUINIVERE
46. HENRIETTA
47. HESTER
48. HONORA
49. IONE
50. ISOLDE
51. JACINTA
52. JEZEBEL
53. KATHERINA
54. KELLEN
55. KIERNAN
56. LAKE
57. LANGLEY
58. LENORE
59. LEONIE
60. LILIBETH
61. LILOU
62. LUCIENNE
63. LUX
64. MARLIN
65. MARYANA
66. MIREILLE
67. NOE
68. NOELY
69. NOVEMBER
70. OLYMPIA
71. ONDINE
72. PALMER
73. PAZ
74. PHILOMENA
75. PIPPA
76. RAFAELLA
77. SABRA
78. SAFFRON
79. SASKIA
80. SIDRA
81. SINEAD
82. SNOW
83. SPRING
84. SYBIL
85. TAJA
86. TALLY
87. TANA
88. TANSY
89. TEMPEST
90. TESSIE
91. TORIL
92. TRIXIE
93. TRUDY
94. TRUTH
95. TULIP
96. VALENTINE
97. VERENA
98. VERONIQUE
99. VITA
100. ZANDRA

Nameberry (http://nameberry.com) is a baby-naming site produced by Pamela Redmond Satran and Linda Rosenkrantz, co-authors of 10 bestselling baby name guides, including the newest, “Beyond Ave and Aiden: The Enlightened Guide to Naming Your Baby.”