Three words, three different measurements
People search for unique, rare and unusual baby names as if they were the same thing. In data they are not. One is a count, one is a rank, and one has no number behind it at all. Knowing which you mean tells you where to look.
Rare is a count
SSA publishes a name only when it was given to at least 5 babies in a year. On this site, rare means 5 to 49 births in the 2024 file. Of the 6,618 name-and-sex listings that match our dataset, 1,657 fall in that band.
| 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.
Uncommon is a rank
A rank says where a name stands relative to other names that year, not how many children carry it. The same position has meant a different number of babies at different times:
| List position | Births in 1950 | Births in 2000 | Births in 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 80,431 | 25,959 | 14,718 |
| 10 | 25,705 | 15,080 | 8,094 |
| 100 | 3,503 | 3,305 | 2,620 |
| 200 | 1,354 | 1,609 | 1,520 |
Position n is the n-th name on that year’s list, counted from the top.
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.
So "outside the top 1,000" is a statement about rank. In 2024 the girls' name at position 1,000 had 257 births and the boys' name at that position had 225.
Unique cannot be measured here
A name missing from the SSA file was given to fewer than 5 babies that year, and SSA does not say how many fewer. Names also split across spellings, each counted on its own. So the data cannot tell a one-of-a-kind name from an unused one.
That is why this site treats unique and rare as one list. The unique baby names page says so in its method note and shows only names SSA lists in the rare band, with a documented meaning.
Unusual is a judgment
There is no count for unusual. A name is unusual to the person hearing it, in the place they live, in the decade they are in. Names move: here is one boy's name across the years.
| Year | Rank | Births |
|---|---|---|
| 1900 | 95 | 256 |
| 1950 | 283 | 556 |
| 1980 | 414 | 393 |
| 2000 | 305 | 978 |
| 2020 | 3 | 14,275 |
| 2024 | 3 | 15,343 |
"Not listed" means SSA does not publish the name that year (fewer than 5 births) or it had not been used yet.
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.
Oliver ranked number 414 in 1980 and number 3 in 2024. That is a change in how unusual the name sounds, and no single birth count captures it.
Which one should you search for
- A name few children received: the unique baby names list.
- A name that is not on the popularity charts: browse any list sorted by SSA rank and look past the top 1,000.
- A name that sounds unfamiliar where you live: ask five people to say it and spell it. Nothing in a dataset replaces that.
- A name with a story: filter by meaning in the baby name generator or start from names that mean moon or another theme page.