Unique Girl Names: 160 Rare Picks With Meanings

Unique girl names worth a look include Kerensa, Seren, Ottoline, Elara, Tindra, Cecily, Sorcha and Zipporah, and this list of 160 gives a checked origin and meaning for every one.

You want a name she will not share with three classmates, but one that people can still say, spell and take seriously. That is the real brief behind most searches for rare girl names, and it rules out random letter swaps.

We grouped 160 real names by style and added an A to Z table. Then we show you how to check any name against official U.S. data, and how to tell when unique has tipped over into hard to live with.

Key Takeaways

None of the 160 names on this list is in the SSA top 10 for girls born in 2025.
Rare picks with simple meanings include Kerensa (“love”), Seren (“star”), Tova (“good”), Suvi (“summer”) and Naledi (“star”).
Some well known names, including Nimue and Thelma, have no known meaning, and an honest list says so.
You can check any name on the SSA baby names page, which leaves out names with fewer than 5 occurrences to protect privacy.
Test a finalist with the say-it-out-loud, stranger, initials, nickname and grown-up tests before you decide.

Table of Contents

Unique Girl Names at a Glance

Quick Answer

Standout unique girl names: Kerensa, Seren, Ottoline, Demelza, Elara, Tindra, Sorrel, Ione, Olwen, Nimue, Cecily, Emmeline, Eulalia, Suvi, Tova, Christabel, Rosamund, Sorcha, Naledi and Zipporah. Each has a documented origin and meaning, listed in the tables below.

Every origin and meaning here was checked against the name’s own entry on Behind the Name in October 2026. Where the reference calls a meaning unknown, uncertain or only possible, we say so. Where it gives nothing beyond “form of” another name, we print exactly that.

Unique does not have to mean invented. Every one of these unique baby girl names is a real, recorded name. Most are uncommon in the United States, a handful (Freya, Maeve, Phoebe, Juliet, Genevieve) are familiar rather than rare, and none is in the Social Security Administration (SSA) top 10 for girls born in 2025.

For chart toppers and classics, start with our main list of baby girl names. For more uncommon ideas for either sex, see unique baby names. This page does not repeat the names on those two lists.

Rare and Very Rare Girl Names

These rare girl names are the quietest on the page. Behind the Name labels four of them as rare in English, three have Cornish roots, and three come from the Old Testament.

Name	Origin	Meaning
Demelza	English (British, rare)	“Fort of Maeldaf”, from a Cornish place name
Kerensa	Cornish	“Love”
Morwenna	Cornish, Welsh	From an Old Cornish word for “maiden, girl”
Jessamine	English (rare)	From a variant spelling of the word jasmine
Mirabel	English (rare)	Variant of Mirabelle: Old French for “wonderful”
Ottoline	English (rare)	Diminutive of Ottilie
Lilias	Scottish	Form of Lillian found in Scotland
Zillah	Biblical	“Shade” in Hebrew
Tirzah	Biblical	From Hebrew Tirtsa: “favorable”
Keturah	Biblical	“Incense” in Hebrew
Isaura	Portuguese, Spanish, Late Roman	“From Isauria”, a region of Asia Minor
Thomasina	English	Medieval feminine form of Thomas
Theodosia	Ancient Greek, Greek	Feminine form of Theodosius: “giving to god”

Rare and very rare girl names with origins and meanings.

Kerensa and Mirabel are good examples of beautiful rare girl names that still sound like names.

Beautiful, Elegant and Short Girl Names

If you like pretty unique girl names with three or four syllables, this group has a long written history. Lucinda was created for Don Quixote, Evelina was revived by a 1778 novel, and Clarissa is the title character of a 1748 one.

Name	Origin	Meaning
Genevieve	English	English form of Geneviève
Rosalind	English	Old German: “horse” plus “soft, flexible, tender”
Isadora	English, Portuguese	Variant of Isidora
Marcella	Italian, German, Ancient Roman	Feminine form of Marcellus
Cecily	English	English form of Cecilia
Emmeline	English	Pet form of Germanic names with amal: “unceasing, vigorous, brave”
Lucinda	English, Portuguese; literature	An elaboration of Lucia, created by Cervantes
Vivienne	French	French form of Viviana
Cassia	Ancient Roman	Feminine form of Cassius
Leonora	Italian	Italian short form of Eleanor
Evelina	English, Italian, Swedish and more	Latinate form of Aveline
Eulalia	Spanish, Italian, Polish, English	Greek: “sweetly-speaking”
Clarissa	English, Italian	Latinate form of Clarice

Beautiful and elegant girl names.

Short unique girl names do the opposite job: three or four letters, quick to spell, hard to shorten. Many began as pet forms, so the reference gives the parent name instead of a separate meaning.

Name	Origin	Meaning
Vita	Late Roman, Italian, Danish and more	Feminine form of Vitus, from Latin vita: “life”
Noa	Hebrew, Spanish, French, Dutch; biblical	Modern Hebrew form of a biblical name; a daughter of Zelophehad
Uma	Hinduism; Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and more	“Flax” in Sanskrit; a name of the goddess Parvati
Nell	English	Medieval pet form of Eleanor, Ellen or Helen
Thea	German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, English	Short form of Dorothea, Theodora or Theresa
Cleo	English	Short form of Cleopatra, Cleon or Cleopas
Faye	English	Variant of Fay: in part from fay, “fairy”
Esme	English	Variant of Esmé
Gaia	Greek mythology, Italian	Greek: “earth”
Inez	English, Swedish, Dutch	Variant of Inés
Oona	Irish, Finnish	Anglicized form of Úna
Orla	Irish	Anglicized form of Órlaith
Romy	German, Dutch, French, English	Pet form of Rosemarie or Rosemary
Suvi	Finnish	“Summer”
Tova	Hebrew	“Good”

Short unique girl names with 3 to 4 letters.

Nature, Sky and Mythology Names

Plants, seasons, birds, the sea and the night sky are a reliable source of uncommon girl names. Fern has been a given name since the late 19th century, Ember, Meadow and Winter are modern word names, and Seren, Eira and Tindra bring the same ideas from Welsh and Swedish. For flowers, see our flower names list.

Name	Origin	Meaning
Fern	English	The plant; from Old English fearn
Ember	English (modern)	From the English word ember
Coral	English, Spanish	The sea coral; from Greek korallion
Skye	English (modern)	From the Isle of Skye in Scotland
Meadow	English (modern)	From the English word meadow
Winter	English (modern)	The season
Sorrel	English (rare)	The sour-tasting plant
Linnet	English (rare)	A variant of Lynette, or the small finch
Paloma	Spanish	“Dove, pigeon”
Elara	Greek mythology	Possibly “hazelnut, spear-shaft”; also a moon of Jupiter
Seren	Welsh	“Star”
Astra	English (rare)	“Star”, from Greek aster
Mahina	Hawaiian, Māori	“Moon, month”
Kailani	Hawaiian; English (modern)	Hawaiian: “ocean, sea” plus “sky, heaven”
Eira	Welsh	“Snow”
Tindra	Swedish (modern)	“To twinkle, to sparkle”

Nature and sky names for girls.

Mythology gives you names that are rare in real life but instantly recognizable, from Greek, Roman, Irish, Welsh, Arthurian and Norse tradition.

Name	Origin	Meaning
Cassandra	Greek mythology (Latinized); English, French	Possibly “to excel, to surpass” plus “man”
Andromeda	Greek mythology	Greek “man” plus “to be mindful of” or “to protect, to rule over”
Eurydice	Greek mythology (Latinized)	“Wide justice”
Phoebe	Greek mythology (Latinized); English, biblical	“Bright, pure”
Electra	Greek mythology (Latinized)	From Greek elektron: “amber”
Maia	Greek and Roman mythology; Portuguese, Georgian	Greek: “good mother, dame, foster mother”
Ione	Greek mythology; English, Portuguese	Greek: “violet flower”
Hestia	Greek mythology	“Hearth, fireside”
Vesta	Roman mythology	Probably a Roman cognate of Hestia
Niamh	Irish; Irish mythology	“Bright”
Maeve	Irish, English; Irish mythology	Anglicized form of Medb: “intoxicating”
Brigid	Irish; Irish mythology	Irish variant of Brighid (see Bridget)
Nimue	Arthurian cycle	Meaning unknown
Enid	Welsh, English; Arthurian cycle	Probably Welsh enaid: “soul, spirit, life”
Olwen	Welsh; Welsh mythology	“White footprint”
Ceridwen	Welsh	Possibly “bent, crooked” plus “woman” or “white, blessed”
Freya	Norse mythology; English (modern), German	Old Norse: “lady”

Girl names from mythology and legend.

Read the story before you choose: some of these figures meet hard endings.

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Literary and Vintage Girl Names

Some unusual girl names were coined or made famous by a single writer. Shakespeare accounts for four in this table, and Lorna, Malvina and Coraline were created outright by a novelist, a poet and a composer.

Name	Origin	Meaning
Portia	English	Variant of Porcia; Shakespeare’s heroine in The Merchant of Venice
Juliet	English	Anglicized form of Giulietta or Juliette
Nerissa	Literature	Shakespeare’s creation, possibly from Greek for “nymph, sea sprite”
Titania	Literature	Perhaps Latin: “of the Titans”; Shakespeare’s fairy queen
Lorna	English	Created by R. D. Blackmore for Lorna Doone (1869)
Coraline	Literature, French	Created for an 1849 opera, probably from Coralie
Esmeralda	Spanish, Portuguese, English; literature	“Emerald”
Lenore	English	Short form of Eleanor
Christabel	English (rare)	Christina plus the ending bel
Thelma	English	Meaning unknown; popularized by an 1887 novel
Malvina	Literature; English, Italian, French	Created by James MacPherson; probably “smooth brow”
Rowena	English	Meaning uncertain; popularized by Ivanhoe (1819)
Wendy	English	From the nickname “fwendy” (“friend”); made famous by Peter Pan

Literary girl names and the works that made them known.

Vintage revivals are older names with long histories that can feel fresh again in a nursery today. Our old lady names guide goes deeper on this style.

Name	Origin	Meaning
Bernadette	French, English, German, Dutch	French feminine form of Bernard
Cornelia	German, Romanian, Italian, Dutch, English; Ancient Roman	Feminine form of Cornelius
Dorothea	German, Dutch, English, Ancient Greek	“Gift of god”
Eudora	Greek mythology	“Good gift”
Euphemia	Ancient Greek, English	“To use words of good omen”
Greta	German, Italian, Swedish, Polish, English and more	Short form of Margareta
Henrietta	English, Hungarian, Finnish, Swedish	Latinate form of Henriette
Hester	English, Dutch	Latin form of Esther
Philomena	English, German; Ancient Greek (Latinized)	Greek: “to be loved”
Ramona	Spanish, Romanian, English	Feminine form of Ramón
Rosamund	English (rare)	Old German: “horse” plus “protection”
Sybil	English	Variant of Sibyl: “prophetess, sibyl”

Vintage girl names ready for a comeback.

International Girl Names, Verified

These names come from other languages and are uncommon in the United States. The origin column uses the reference’s own usage labels. Irish and Welsh spelling follows different rules from English, so hear Caoimhe, Sorcha or Ffion said aloud before you commit.

Name	Origin	Meaning
Solange	French, Portuguese	From Latin sollemnis: “religious”
Oriane	French	French form of Oriana
Amandine	French	French diminutive of Amanda
Ginevra	Italian	Italian form of Guinevere
Fiammetta	Italian	Diminutive of Fiamma: “flame”
Nerea	Basque, Spanish	Possibly Basque nere, “mine”, or a feminine form of Nereus
Ronja	Swedish, Finnish	Invented by Astrid Lindgren, from the name of a Swedish lake
Signy	Norwegian	Norwegian variant form of Signý
Caoimhe	Irish	Irish caomh: “dear, beloved, gentle”
Sorcha	Irish, Scottish Gaelic	“Radiant, bright”
Ffion	Welsh	“Foxglove”
Carys	Welsh	From Welsh caru: “love”

French, Italian, Basque, Nordic, Irish and Welsh girl names.

Name	Origin	Meaning
Liora	Hebrew	Strictly feminine form of Lior: “my light”
Shirin	Persian, Uzbek, Tajik, Kyrgyz	“Sweet”
Meera	Hindi, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada	Alternate spelling of Mira: Sanskrit for “sea, ocean”
Akari	Japanese	“Bright” or “vermilion red” plus “village” or “white jasmine”, by kanji
Naledi	Tswana, Sotho	“Star”
Makena	Kikuyu	“Happy one”
Zawadi	Swahili	“Gift”

Hebrew, Persian, South Asian, Japanese and African girl names.

For Akari, as for any Japanese name, the meaning depends on the kanji characters a family chooses, so the gloss above is one common set of readings and not the only one. If a name comes from a culture outside your own family, learn how it is said and used first. For Spanish names such as Paloma, Esperanza and Isaura, see our Hispanic girl names list.

Surname-Style, Word and Virtue Names

Surname names give a girl a crisp, tailored sound. Behind the Name lists every name in this table except Delaney as used for both girls and boys. There are more in our gender neutral names guide.

Name	Origin	Meaning
Delaney	English (modern)	From the English or the Irish surname Delaney
Waverly	English	From the surname Waverley, a place in Surrey
Collins	English	From a surname of Irish or English origin
Marley	English (modern)	Surname: “pleasant wood”, “boundary wood” or “marten wood”
Sinclair	English (rare)	Scottish surname, from a Norman French town called Saint Clair
Darby	English	Surname from the town of Derby: “animal” plus “farm, settlement”
Quincy	English	Surname that goes back to the personal name Quintus
Sheridan	English	Irish surname, possibly meaning “searcher”

Surname-style names for girls.

Word and virtue names say what they mean. Mercy, Patience and Charity go back to the Puritans, and Sunday and Liberty are listed for both girls and boys.

Name	Origin	Meaning
Mercy	English	From the English word; a Puritan virtue name
Patience	English	From the English word; a Puritan virtue name
Charity	English	From the English word; Late Latin caritas: “dearness, esteem, love”
Liberty	English	From the English word; Latin liber: “free”
Harmony	English	From the English word; Greek harmonia
Sunday	English	The day of the week: “sun” plus “day”
Halcyon	Various (rare)	From a genus of kingfisher birds
Cadence	English (modern)	From an English word meaning “rhythm, flow”

Word and virtue names for girls.

Unique Girl Names From A to Z

Want unique girl names by first letter? Here is one more pick for every letter of the alphabet, none of them repeated from the tables above. The letter A has its own page: girl names that start with A.

Letter	Name	Origin	Meaning
A	Arianwen	Welsh	“Silver” plus “white, blessed”
B	Beatrix	German, Hungarian, Dutch, English	Probably “voyager, traveler”; later tied to Latin beatus, “blessed, happy”
C	Clodagh	Irish	From the Clodiagh, a river in County Waterford
D	Damaris	Biblical	Probably Greek: “calf, heifer, girl”
E	Esperanza	Spanish	From Latin spero: “to hope”
F	Flavia	Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Ancient Roman	Feminine form of Flavius: “yellow, golden”
G	Gwendolen	Welsh	Possibly “white ring”
H	Hero	Greek mythology	Greek: “hero”; the lover of Leander
I	Iona	English, Scottish	From the Scottish island of Iona
J	Jemima	Biblical, English	Traditionally said to mean “dove”
K	Keziah	Biblical	“Cassia, cinnamon”, the spice tree
L	Lorelei	Literature, English	From a rock on the Rhine; meaning uncertain
M	Moana	Māori, Hawaiian, Tahitian, Samoan, Tongan	“Ocean, wide expanse of water, deep sea”
N	Nyx	Greek mythology	“Night”
O	Olympia	Greek, Slovak	Feminine form of Olympos
P	Pomona	Roman mythology	From Latin pomus: “fruit tree”
Q	Quetzalli	Nahuatl	“Feather (from the quetzal bird)” or “precious thing”
R	Roxana	English, Spanish, Romanian	Old Iranian: “bright, shining”
S	Salome	Biblical; English and German (rare), Georgian	Related to Hebrew shalom: “peace”
T	Tallulah	English (rare)	From waterfalls in Georgia; “leaping waters” is a popular claim
U	Undine	Literature	From Latin unda: “wave”
V	Verena	German, Late Roman	Possibly related to Latin verus: “true”
W	Winona	English, Sioux	“Firstborn daughter” in Dakota or Lakota
X	Xenia	Greek, Spanish, Ancient Greek	“Hospitality”
Y	Yael	Hebrew	Hebrew form of Jael: “ibex, mountain goat”
Z	Zipporah	Biblical, Hebrew	From Hebrew tsippor: “bird”

Unique girl names from A to Z.

Two notes from the reference: Jemima “may actually be related” to a Hebrew word for “daytime”, and Tallulah may in fact mean “town” in Creek.

How to Check How Rare a Name Really Is

“Rare” on a name website is a judgment call. The SSA publishes the actual U.S. data, and you can check any name on its Popular Baby Names page in a few minutes:

Popularity of a Name: type in the name, choose female and pick a start year to see how it has ranked.
Popular Names by Birth Year: pick a year and view the top 20, 50, 100, 500 or 1,000 names. The SSA’s website forms show only the top 1,000.
Beyond the Top 1000 Names: this page offers data files that hold almost all names, for people researching naming trends.
The privacy cutoff: to safeguard privacy, the SSA leaves out names with fewer than 5 occurrences, so the very rarest never appear.
Spellings count separately: the SSA does not combine different spellings of similar names, so a respelled popular name looks rarer on paper than it sounds.

The data come from Social Security card applications for U.S. births. National figures can hide local clusters, so ask parents nearby which names they hear most.

Unique vs Hard to Spell: Five Quick Tests

The best unique girl names with meaning are uncommon without being a daily chore. Run each finalist through five tests:

The say-it-out-loud test: call the full name across the house. Listen for a first name that blurs into the surname.
The stranger test: ask someone to read the name aloud from paper, then to spell it after hearing it. One miss is fine. Five in a row is worth knowing about.
The initials test: write out first, middle and last initials and check they do not spell a word you would not choose.
The nickname test: decide how you feel about the obvious short form. Assume someone will use it.
The grown-up test: picture the name on a job application, not only on a baby.

A new spelling of a common name is not a rare name: it sounds identical in a classroom.

Sibling, Surname and Middle Name Pairings

These pairings are ideas, not rules. Sister sets tend to work when the names share a style but differ in first letter and ending:

Seren and Carys
Maeve and Niamh
Cecily and Rosalind
Fern and Coral
Thea and Nell
Dorothea and Cornelia

For a brother, match the style from our unique boy names list. A short surname can carry Theodosia or Andromeda, and a long one often sits better after Nell, Tova or Fern.

A rare first name pairs well with a calm middle name, or the other way around: Seren Dorothea, Ottoline Faye, Kerensa Maeve, Elara Genevieve, Tova Rosalind, Freya Emmeline, Cecily Fern and Juliet Winter. Our middle names guide has many more.

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The Bottom Line

Unique girl names are easiest to live with when they are real names with a history: Kerensa and Seren from Cornwall and Wales, Elara and Ione from Greek myth, Christabel and Rosamund from medieval England, Suvi, Sorcha and Naledi from languages around the world. Shortlist three to five, read each meaning, check the name on ssa.gov, and say it out loud for a week.

Once the name is settled, sleep is the next project. Our newborn sleep schedule week by week is a gentle place to start.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some unique girl names?

Unique girl names with a real history include Kerensa, Seren, Ottoline, Demelza, Elara, Tindra, Sorrel, Ione, Olwen, Cecily, Emmeline, Eulalia, Christabel, Rosamund, Sorcha and Zipporah. Each one has a documented origin, and none is in the Social Security Administration top 10 for girls born in 2025.

What are the rarest girl names?

There is no single rarest name, because the Social Security Administration leaves out names with fewer than 5 occurrences to protect privacy. Names that Behind the Name labels as rare in English include Jessamine, Mirabel, Ottoline, Sorrel, Linnet, Astra, Christabel, Rosamund and Tallulah. You can look up any name on the SSA baby names page.

What are beautiful rare girl names?

Taste is personal, but meaning can help you choose. Kerensa means love in Cornish, Mirabel comes from an Old French word for wonderful, Eulalia means sweetly-speaking in Greek, Seren means star in Welsh, Sorcha means radiant or bright, and Eudora means good gift. All are uncommon in the United States.

What are short unique girl names?

Short unique girl names with three or four letters include Vita, Noa, Uma, Nell, Thea, Cleo, Faye, Esme, Gaia, Inez, Oona, Orla, Romy, Suvi and Tova, plus Fern, Eira, Nyx, Hero, Iona and Yael. Suvi means summer in Finnish and Tova means good in Hebrew.

How do I check how popular a baby name is?

Use the Popular Baby Names page on ssa.gov. The Popularity of a Name search shows how a name has ranked over time, and Popular Names by Birth Year lists up to the top 1,000 names for any year. Each spelling is counted on its own, and names with fewer than 5 occurrences are left out.

Can a name be too unique?

It can if it is hard to say, spell or live with. Try five quick tests: say the full name out loud, ask a stranger to read and spell it, write out the initials, decide how you feel about the obvious nickname, and picture the name on an adult. A real name with a history usually passes.

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7 Sources

Social Security Administration. Popular Baby Names (top 10 names of 2025, Popularity of a Name, Popular Names by Birth Year).
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/index.html
Social Security Administration. Background Information for Popular Names.
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/background.html
Social Security Administration. Beyond the Top 1000 Names.
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/babynames/limits.html
Behind the Name. Browse Names: feminine names.
https://www.behindthename.com/names/gender/feminine
Behind the Name. Meaning, origin and history of the name Thelma.
https://www.behindthename.com/name/thelma
Behind the Name. Meaning, origin and history of the name Tallulah.
https://www.behindthename.com/name/tallulah
Behind the Name. Meaning, origin and history of the name Wendy.
https://www.behindthename.com/name/wendy

Unique Girl Names: 160 Rare and Beautiful Picks With Meanings

Unique Girl Names at a Glance

Rare and Very Rare Girl Names

Beautiful, Elegant and Short Girl Names

Nature, Sky and Mythology Names

Literary and Vintage Girl Names

International Girl Names, Verified

Surname-Style, Word and Virtue Names

Unique Girl Names From A to Z

How to Check How Rare a Name Really Is

Unique vs Hard to Spell: Five Quick Tests

Sibling, Surname and Middle Name Pairings

Related Betteroo Guides

The Bottom Line

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some unique girl names?

What are the rarest girl names?

What are beautiful rare girl names?

What are short unique girl names?

How do I check how popular a baby name is?

Can a name be too unique?

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