Start with what "unique" can actually mean
Nobody can count how many children share a name, so "unique" has to be turned into something you can check. The closest thing is the US Social Security Administration (SSA) birth file: it lists a name only when at least 5 babies received it in a year. In the 2024 file, 6,618 name-and-sex listings match a name in our dataset, and 1,657 of them sit in the rare band of 5 to 49 births.
| Births in the year | Listings in our dataset |
|---|---|
| 1,000 or more births | 650 |
| 200 to 999 births | 1,621 |
| 50 to 199 births | 2,690 |
| 5 to 49 births (rare on this site) | 1,657 |
A listing is one spelling for one sex, so a name given to both sexes counts twice. Only the 6,618 listings whose spelling matches a name in our dataset are counted; SSA's full file is larger.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Popular Baby Names (national data, 1880-2024). Counts are Social Security card applications for births in the United States; names with fewer than 5 births in a year are not listed, and spelling variants are counted separately. Baby Name Wizard is not affiliated with or endorsed by the SSA.
The useful question is not "is it unique?" but "how far from the crowd do I want to be?" The rows above are the steps.
Uncommon is not the same as strange
Being outside the top 1,000 is a rank statement. In 2024 the name at position 1,000 on the girls' list still had 257 births, and on the boys' list 225. A name can be well outside the charts and still be one a classroom of children has heard before.
Strange is about how a name lands when people meet it, and that depends on spelling, sound and meaning more than on a birth count. The checks below are aimed at that.
Five checks before you commit
- Say it to someone who has not seen it written. Ask them to write it down. If the spelling comes back different more than once, expect that every time the name is dictated on the phone.
- Look for the nickname other people will invent. Every name gets shortened. Say the likely short forms out loud and decide whether you can live with all of them.
- Read the initials. Write first, middle and last initials together, in both orders a form might use.
- Say it with the surname and the middle name. Names that end and begin on the same sound run together. The middle name guide covers this.
- Check the meaning with someone who speaks the language. The meaning shown on this site is one documented sense. Words travel, and a name can mean something different, or nothing, in another language.
Rare names that come with a documented meaning
These are drawn from our unique baby names list, which uses the rare band above. They are the rare names closest to the ceiling, so they are the ones a family is most likely to have met.
| Name | U.S. births | Documented meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Devi | 49 | goddess, female deity |
| Surya | 49 | the sun or its deity |
| Anja | 48 | Beauty |
| Darya | 48 | Sea, wealthy. |
| Marwan | 48 | Solid, old Arabic Muslim name |
| Murray | 48 | sea, settlement |
| Naina | 48 | Eyes |
| Reema | 48 | White antalope |
| Zair | 48 | Pilgrim, Visitor, guest. |
| Aiya | 47 | Miracle, verses in the Qur'an |
| Arisha | 47 | Highness |
| Kamran | 47 | Lucky, happy, success, Safety and helpful.. |
A name is listed when the U.S. Social Security Administration’s 2024 national file records it with 5 to 49 births for a sex, it has no sex with 50 or more births, and it has a documented meaning in our data. Unique, rare and unusual are one list here: all three mean few births, which is the only measure this data supports. Rare here means rare in U.S. birth records, not invented or one of a kind. Shown in the page's own order; meanings longer than 60 characters are skipped.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Popular Baby Names (national data, 1880-2024). Counts are Social Security card applications for births in the United States; names with fewer than 5 births in a year are not listed, and spelling variants are counted separately. Baby Name Wizard is not affiliated with or endorsed by the SSA.
Meanings, origins and genders are as recorded in this site's dataset: Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0) and the MuslimNames.com dataset (CC0). Each is one documented sense, not a full etymology.
For one sex only, see unique girl names and unique boy names.
The respelling trap
SSA counts spellings separately. A respelled version of a common name will look rare in the data, but it sounds like the common name, and the people who hear it will group it with the common one. If you want a name that is rare to the ear, judge the sound, not the spelling. A respelling also means correcting the spelling for the rest of the child's life.
A way to shortlist
- Choose the band you are comfortable with from the table at the top.
- Browse a list in that band, or use the baby name generator and filter by origin.
- Keep only names with a meaning you have checked.
- Run the five checks on the survivors.
- Say the shortlist aloud for a week before you decide.