Gothic Names
This is an editorial collection of names with a Gothic literary connection or a dark, romantic atmosphere. The notes distinguish actual characters and authors from nature imagery and sound; it is not a list of names from the ancient Gothic language.
| Save name | Name & connection | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Victor Frankenstein, the creator in Mary Shelley's novel. | 1,664#211 | Down 11 rank positions in five years | 1990 | ||
Lucy Westenra, whose fate haunts Stoker's Dracula. | 6,176#25 | Up 25 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
Edgar Allan Poe gives this name a direct Gothic literary connection. | 617#486 | Down 95 rank positions in five years | 2005 | ||
An atmospheric choice; the similar Damien is familiar from The Omen. | 3,213#109 | Up 1 rank positions in five years | 2013 | ||
The poet of the Divine Comedy supplies an infernal literary connection. | 1,104#308 | Down 7 rank positions in five years | 1998 | ||
The bird at the center of Poe's best-known poem. | 771#404 | Up 13 rank positions in five years | 1993 | ||
Shakespeare's tragic heroine gives this name a melancholy literary connection. | 1,183#264 | Up 127 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
Oscar Wilde's beautiful, corrupted hero in The Picture of Dorian Gray. | 557#539 | Down 27 rank positions in five years | 2008 | ||
The absent beloved in Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. | 98#1,971 | Up 1,688 rank positions in five years | 1926 | ||
Mina Harker, one of the central figures of Bram Stoker's Dracula. | 491#597 | Up 64 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
The heroine of Poe's poem Annabel Lee. | 91#2,065 | Down 850 rank positions in five years | 2014 | ||
A flowing classical name chosen here for its dark romance sound. | 670#462 | Up 174 rank positions in five years | 2025 | ||
A name with a long afterlife in supernatural folklore and literature. | 1,111#277 | Up 39 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
Ambrose Bierce wrote unsettling supernatural fiction. | 358#735 | Up 83 rank positions in five years | 2021 | ||
The dark gemstone makes this a strong Gothic nature choice. | 881#365 | Up 248 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
The Massachusetts place name carries a witch-trial association. | 400#679 | Up 129 rank positions in five years | 2024 | ||
A darkly ornate Roman name with a vampire namesake in Buffy. | 8#11,188 | Down 2,082 rank positions in five years | 1955 | ||
The familiar name of Dracula's author, Bram Stoker. | 56#2,422 | Up 786 rank positions in five years | 2016 | ||
An enchantress's name with a dark romance atmosphere. | 19#6,260 | Down 251 rank positions in five years | 2023 | ||
The poisonous plant gives this floral name a darker edge. | 28#4,782 | Up 908 rank positions in five years | 2009 | ||
The vampire heroine of Sheridan Le Fanu's Gothic novella. | 6#13,524 | new | 1921 | ||
The tragic heroine of Othello. | —Unranked | — | 2017 | ||
Emily Bronte's brooding figure in Wuthering Heights. | 5#12,704 | Down 1,600 rank positions in five years | 2020 | ||
The title character of another of Poe's unsettling tales. | —Unranked | — | 1923 | ||
A raven-like sound makes this an atmospheric editorial choice. | 5#16,720 | new | 1957 | ||
The title character of a Gothic short story by Poe. | —Unranked | — | 1974 |
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Sources & methodology
Meaning summaries use Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0) and referenced name histories. Each name’s detail page includes its sources.
Membership on this list is editorial — we chose names that genuinely fit the theme. Every number is from official birth data: "—" means the name had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, which makes it a genuinely rare pick today, not an invalid one. The dot marks whether the stats shown are for the girls' or boys' use of the name.