Expecting a child? Picking a name for your unborn kid is arguably one of the hardest things you’ll ever do. Trying to choose the perfect moniker requires a certain amount of patience, discipline, and creativity.
You want to pick a name that’s unique enough where the child doesn’t meet 80 other people with the same name in their lifetime (hello Michael and Rachel) but won’t get made fun of either (careful of names that might sound like other offensive words—my mom who was a teacher had a student named “Athhole” in her class—try saying that one out loud in front of a bunch of students!).
Anyway, luckily, there are lots of new names out there that other people tried out that you can too. According to data from the U.S. Social Security Administration, more than 29,910 distinct names were given to newborns just last year, with 1,100 of those being completely new and not seen anywhere before 2017.
Yes, that means parents are just starting to make up names willy nilly—but some of them are really cool! These names definitely hit the unique-yet-original standards most people try to hit.
Here are the top 30 from the list, along with how many babies now have the name:
- Camreigh, 91 births
- Asahd, 58 births
- Taishmara, 38 births
- Kashdon, 30 births
- Teylie, 23 births
- Kassian, 22 births
- Kior, 20 births
- Aaleiya, 19 births
- Kamreigh, 18 births
- Draxler, 17 births
- Ikeni, 17 births
- Noctis, 17 births
- Sayyora, 15 births
- Mohana, 13 births
- Dakston, 13 births
- Knoxlee, 12 births
- Amunra, 12 births
- Arjunreddy, 12 births
- Irtaza, 12 births
- Ledgen, 12 births
- Avajade, 11 births
- Cersei, 11 births
- Imona, 11 births
- Lunarose, 11 births
- Miraclle, 11 births
- Novahlee, 11 births
- Owsley, 11 births
- Gurbaaz, 11 births
- Alisanne, 10 births
- Avianni, 10 births
Some of these names are so interesting, you might be curious how parents even came up with them! Inspiration can be found in many unexpected places.
For example, some of these names were derived from just objects that sound like names. Take the number one name Camreigh for example (as well as Kamreigh, which is ninth on the list), which is a spelling variation of the name Camry, which comes from a Toyota Camry. In recent years, we’ve seen an uptick in the “eigh” ending to names (Ashleigh, Ryleigh, etc.), so parents combined the two to form Camreigh and Kamreigh. Next we’ll be meeting people named Corolla and Prius!
Additionally, a few others on here were inspired by either TV or video game characters. Take Noctis for example, which is a character from the popular “Final Fantasy” video game franchise, or Cersei, a character from the TV show Game of Thrones.
And of course, people love getting inspo from famous Internet celebs. Asahd is the name of popular music artist DJ Khaled’s son, and Taishmara was likely derived from Taishmara Rivera, another popular star in the music industry.
Some names that didn’t make the top 30 but still made the list include non-English names popular in other countries. For example, Tewodros, a Hebrew variation of Theodore, and Iretomiwa, more popular in Nigeria, which translates to “blessing has come to me.”
Would you give your child any of these names? Which one is your favorite?