Little used but 'known' names....

[fizzpops]

I am trying to think of names (boy or girl) which are not much used but are still names that people are familiar with.

I don't mean names that were popular in the 1970s and for that reason they aren't used now, but names like Lois or Elijah which everyone has heard of but which haven't reached saturation point. Or at least not where I live!

What names do you know that are surprisingly underused?

Wow thats a hard one! What about Tabitha or Lydia or Gabriel for a boy.

My two favourite 'real' names that I have never met anybody called are Thaddeus and Yolande.

Otherwise:

Boys' - Bartholomew / Philip / Terence / Timothy / David / Gregory

Girls' - Vivienne / Christabel / Melissa / Miranda /

Saffron and Elliot

You will find loads and loads of lovely underused names on the ONS Statistics website when you look at the list of ALL baby names given in a year. Once you look beyond the top 100 or even top 250 you'll find lots of inspiration .

I haven't got the link to hand, but I'm sure someone has got it.

If you get hold of the full name stats for last year (or preceeding years) you can search by this!

E.g. names like Judith that were used a handful of times. Nina was used 150 times or so. I find it fascinating.

ah, x post with flopsymopsy!

Thaddeus is lovely, as is Cassius. We have a Quentin which is not very used round here (although it is very popular in France).

Thomas and Philip would have been on our list, if they were not already used by family.

DH vetoed Simon.

Love Nathan or Nathaniel but our name begins with N so that was out.

Favourite girls names: Daphne, Rachel, Rebecca, Clarissa, Claudia, Carmen,

How about Sally, Anne, David, Michael? I suppose they are maybe a bit 70s but still lovely normal names

Simon - now there's a name you don't hear often. It always makes me think of Lord Of The Flies so v v sad. :(

Caroline, Louise, Rachel, Lisa, Anita, Deborah, Karen, Joanna, Marian, Alison?

Mark, Andrew, Neil, Peter, Simon, Nigel, Iain?

Clara

Or somewhat less common:

Nerissa, Gladys, Josette, Yvonne, Marcia, Elspeth, Mirabel, Genevive, Jocasta, Adelaide, Hestia, Veronica

Dominic, Bernard, Saul, Lionel, Christoph, Rupert, Wulfric, Bede, Kenneth, Colin, Eugene, Gilbert

Lillith, Elsa, Penny, Poppy, Julia,

Seth, Magnus, Paul

Joanna, Fiona, Annika, Camilla, Deborah, Nora, Marjorie, Lydia, Naomi, Sara ?

Richard, Anthony, Gerard, Ian, Michael, Nicholas, Andrew, David, John ?

My personal favourite somewhat underused names:

Gilbert
Henry
Claude
Elias
Clement
Lowell
Bartholomew

Adrian, Neil, John, Robert

Sarah, Susan, Louise, Jane

Lots of interesting suggestions! My sister's, brother's, dad's, 2 x BILs and daughter's names have all been mentioned! Not sure what that says really except I would have said they were fairly common names - perhaps some not so much these days.

DD is Polly - never met another one (under 30 anyway!) and people always comment how you don't hear it much these days even though it is lovely.

Though I read today that Kym Marsh has called her new baby Polly so maybe that is set to change!

Other suggestions...

Tess, Meredith, Josephine, Sylvie, Juliet
Peter, Daniel, Nathaniel, Caspar

Not sure that Nathaniel isn't becoming vv popular... DD is 5 months and there are 4 Nathaniels that I have met her age.

That said, I haven't come across anyone else with DD's name (Matilda). I know about 40 babies and DH works in a primary school of 200 (not a single Matilda at the school and it starts from age 3), BUT, everyone on here says its really popular?!

I think popularity depends heavily on the area!

Little-used is a tricky one.

When your child gets to school age you discover that you did not have such an original thought!

My son has one of these names: everyone has heard of it and can spell it, but there aren't many children called it. It was very popular in Victorian times.

How about:

Tara
Mamie
Christy
Ora
Rudy
Kurt
Anne-Marie
Abraham
Augusta
Angelica
Monica
Estelle
Emmett
Rosalie