Rare Baby Names
Every name on this page was given to fewer than 100 babies in the United States in 2025 — that's the definition, and the real count is shown next to each name. No editorial guessing about what "rare" means.
- Rare girls’ names, 2025
- 15,352
- of 17,293 girls’ names listed
- Girls with one
- 17.4%
- of girls born in 2025
- What counts as rare
- < 100
- babies — under 1 in 16,072 girls
- Rare boys’ names, 2025
- 12,259
- of 13,926 boys’ names listed
- Boys with one
- 12.9%
- of boys born in 2025
- What counts as rare
- < 100
- babies — under 1 in 17,080 boys
| Save name | Name & meaning | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 98#1,965 | Down 419 rank positions in five years | 1959 | |||
| 98#1,973 | Up 1 rank positions in five years | 1920 | |||
| 96#1,701 | Down 460 rank positions in five years | 1972 | |||
| 96#1,999 | Down 451 rank positions in five years | 1982 | |||
| 97#1,691 | Down 436 rank positions in five years | 1958 | |||
| 97#1,985 | Down 129 rank positions in five years | 1970 | |||
| 99#1,948 | Down 244 rank positions in five years | 1952 | |||
| 95#1,713 | Down 257 rank positions in five years | 1956 | |||
| 99#1,942 | Down 524 rank positions in five years | 1998 | |||
| 97#1,981 | Down 502 rank positions in five years | 1975 | |||
| 98#1,980 | Down 624 rank positions in five years | 1982 | |||
| 96#1,997 | Down 560 rank positions in five years | 1989 | |||
| 95#1,708 | Down 330 rank positions in five years | 1985 | |||
| 99#1,672 | Down 521 rank positions in five years | 1990 | |||
| 98#1,971 | Up 1,688 rank positions in five years | 1926 | |||
| 95#1,712 | Down 37 rank positions in five years | 1952 | |||
| 96#1,703 | Down 21 rank positions in five years | 1979 | |||
| 95#1,722 | Down 470 rank positions in five years | 1990 | |||
| 97#1,986 | Up 1,501 rank positions in five years | 1921 | |||
| 98#1,966 | Down 963 rank positions in five years | 2008 | |||
| 98#1,969 | Down 657 rank positions in five years | 2003 | |||
| 99#1,669 | Down 542 rank positions in five years | 1990 | |||
| 98#1,967 | Down 296 rank positions in five years | 2008 | |||
| 96#2,001 | Down 432 rank positions in five years | 1959 | |||
| 97#1,982 | Down 159 rank positions in five years | 2006 | |||
| 99#1,671 | Up 1,009 rank positions in five years | 1994 | |||
| 98#1,687 | Down 489 rank positions in five years | 2004 | |||
| 98#1,979 | Down 313 rank positions in five years | 1992 | |||
| 99#1,956 | Down 291 rank positions in five years | 2014 | |||
| 99#1,951 | Down 732 rank positions in five years | 2011 | |||
| 96#1,704 | Down 121 rank positions in five years | 1970 | |||
| 98#1,680 | Down 506 rank positions in five years | 2013 | |||
| 97#1,693 | Up 170 rank positions in five years | 1917 | |||
| 99#1,949 | Down 513 rank positions in five years | 2004 | |||
| 95#1,714 | Down 133 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 95#1,724 | Down 149 rank positions in five years | 2002 | |||
| 97#1,695 | Down 97 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 98#1,686 | Down 683 rank positions in five years | 2012 | |||
| 98#1,978 | Down 478 rank positions in five years | 2006 | |||
| 95#1,717 | Down 442 rank positions in five years | 2019 | |||
| 97#1,987 | Up 288 rank positions in five years | 2002 | |||
| 96#1,705 | Up 6 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 99#1,674 | Up 1,076 rank positions in five years | 1918 | |||
| 95#1,720 | Up 141 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 95#1,721 | Down 8 rank positions in five years | 2008 | |||
| 99#1,950 | Down 506 rank positions in five years | 2008 | |||
| 98#1,975 | Down 73 rank positions in five years | 2018 | |||
| 97#1,988 | Down 446 rank positions in five years | 2016 | |||
| 99#1,668 | Down 465 rank positions in five years | 2010 | |||
| 98#1,679 | Up 100 rank positions in five years | 2017 | |||
| 97#1,694 | Up 318 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 95#1,716 | Up 142 rank positions in five years | 2016 | |||
| 99#1,960 | Up 535 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 97#1,983 | Up 194 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 98#1,678 | Up 515 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 98#1,964 | Up 295 rank positions in five years | 2017 | |||
| 98#1,684 | Down 799 rank positions in five years | 2020 | |||
| 99#1,952 | Up 1,170 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 98#1,682 | Up 72 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 97#1,984 | Down 338 rank positions in five years | 2019 | |||
| 98#1,974 | Down 280 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 96#1,706 | Up 423 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 98#1,972 | Up 516 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 99#1,945 | Up 137 rank positions in five years | 2016 | |||
| 99#1,954 | Up 281 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 96#1,699 | Up 174 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 99#1,959 | Up 255 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 98#1,963 | Up 209 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 99#1,946 | Up 608 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 97#1,689 | Down 133 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 97#1,688 | Up 1,236 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 97#1,696 | Down 143 rank positions in five years | 2020 | |||
| 99#1,675 | Up 139 rank positions in five years | 2019 | |||
| 99#1,947 | Down 216 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 98#1,970 | Up 1,392 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 99#1,944 | Up 1,121 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 97#1,989 | Up 326 rank positions in five years | 2019 | |||
| 96#1,707 | Up 520 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 97#1,697 | Up 1,221 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 97#1,692 | Down 304 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 99#1,961 | Up 1,374 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 98#1,962 | Up 357 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 97#1,690 | Up 427 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 99#1,670 | Up 1,140 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 99#1,943 | Up 656 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 98#1,685 | Up 2,405 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 98#1,677 | Up 561 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 99#1,953 | Up 921 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 98#1,976 | Up 731 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 98#1,681 | Up 2,377 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 98#1,977 | Up 1,293 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 99#1,676 | Up 1,737 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 96#1,702 | Up 1,523 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 99#1,673 | Up 7,618 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 99#1,955 | Up 4,883 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 96#1,700 | Up 2,328 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 99#1,957 | Up 8,141 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 97#1,698 | Up 2,990 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 98#1,683 | Up 4,802 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 99#1,958 | new | 2024 |
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Rare girls’ names on the way up
Climbing fastest over the last five years while staying under the 100-baby line — catch them before everyone else does.
Vintage girls’ names almost nobody uses now
Each was a top-1,000 name before 1985 and is down to fewer than 100 babies a year — the deepest well of familiar-but-unused names there is.
Brand-new girls’ names
First recorded anywhere in the data within the last 3 years — coinages so new they have no history yet.
Rare boys’ names on the way up
Climbing fastest over the last five years while staying under the 100-baby line — catch them before everyone else does.
Vintage boys’ names almost nobody uses now
Each was a top-1,000 name before 1985 and is down to fewer than 100 babies a year — the deepest well of familiar-but-unused names there is.
Brand-new boys’ names
First recorded anywhere in the data within the last 3 years — coinages so new they have no history yet.
Sources & methodology
Counts come from official births data for 2025. “Rare” here means fewer than 100 applications that year; the ranked lists also require at least 300 all-time uses since 1880, which keeps one-off spellings out (the brand-new list waives that floor by design — a new coinage can’t have a history). Names given to fewer than 5 babies of one sex in a year aren’t published at all, so the truly rarest names are invisible to everyone, including us. Counts are card applications rather than births, and a rare name is “uncommon”, never “invalid”.