Unusual British Baby Names: Rare and Refined (2024)

Unusual British baby names are famed for their eccentricity as well as for their sophisticated style. It’s a winning combination for adventurous parents and name lovers alike!

If you have a whole afternoon to spare (don’t say we didn’t warn you!) browsing through the latest birth announcements from the London-based Telegraph newspaper is a brilliant way to get unique baby name inspiration with a distinctly British flair.

But if you don’t have a whole afternoon, never fear! We’ve analyzed the announcements from the past year to identify the stylish British names making a splash across the pond right now.

British Girl Names

To give you an example of how these names differ from the main England & Wales popularity list, the top 5 first names for girls include two choices outside of the official Top 100: Ottilie (#142 nationally) and Flora (#291). Both were used five times in a population of only 272 baby girls.

And a little further down the list, there are many more names that appear multiple times in the Telegraph announcements, but don’t even make the official Top 1000. Antigone, Araminta, Cosima, Hester, Loveday, Maud and Xenia, to name but a few.

The unusual British girl names in this list all rank below the Top 100 nationally – and below the Top 500 in the US – but were used multiple times by Telegraph parents.

1. Antigone

2. Antonia

3. Araminta

4. Aurelia

5. Beatrix

6. Bluebell

7. Cecily

8. Clementine

9. Coco

10. Constance

11. Cosima

12. Dorothy

13. Flora

14. Henrietta

15. Hester

16. Honor

17. Ida

18. Jemima

19. Kitty

20. Loveday

21. Marina

22. Maud

23. Olympia

24. Ottilie

25. Rosanna

26. Sybil

27. Tabitha

28. Xenia

British Boy Names

Timeless traditional names top the Telegraph list for boys: Henry, Arthur, Oscar and William were all used ten or more times in the first-name slot.

But some of the other unusual British boy names might surprise you! Wilfred (the name of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s baby son) was used six times as a first name and once as a middle. And Maximilian, Barnaby, Edmund, Guy and Rupert all appeared at least three times in a population of 303 baby boys.

The uncommon British boy names in this list all rank below the Top 100 nationally – and below the Top 500 in the US – but were used multiple times by Telegraph parents.

1. Balthazar

2. Barnaby

3. Bertie

4. Cosmo

5. Digby

6. Edmund

7. Ernest

8. Fergus

9. Fraser

10. Guy

11. Horatio

12. Hugh

13. Kit

14. Laurence

15. Leopold

16. Ludo

17. Lysander

18. Maximilian

19. Otis

20. Percival

21. Percy

22. Rafe

23. Rafferty

24. Rex

25. Roland

26. Rupert

27. Wilfred

28. Ziggy

Unique British Girl Names

And then there are the unique British baby names that only appeared once in the Telegraph announcements – and don’t feature at all in the Top 1000 baby names in the US.

Stylish British girl name trends include long yet lively names of Italian and Greek origin, like Allegra, Elettra, Leonora and Nephele. Sweetly clunky vintage girl names are also in style, like Christabel, Georgiana, Prudence and Winifred. And, of course, nickname names are always beloved by the Brits – the quirkier the better! Milou, Posy, Suki and Tiggy are some of our favorite examples in this category.

Girl names hailing from the British Isles, like Eirlys (Welsh for “snowdrop”) and Tamsin (a Cornish feminine form of Thomas), are also in regular use. And, if unique names are your thing, they have the added benefit of being virtually unheard of outside the UK.

1. Allegra

2. Auriol

3. Balfour

4. Christabel

5. Cicely

6. Cressida

7. Decima

8. Delphine

9. Eirlys

10. Elettra

11. Elspeth

12. Fleur

13. Gaia

14. Georgiana

15. Honora

16. Leonora

17. Lupita

18. Milou

19. Nephele

20. Pear

21. Posy

22. Prudence

23. Saskia

24. Storm

25. Suki

26. Tallulah

27. Tamsin

28. Tiggy

29. Vesper

30. Winifred

31. Zadie

Unique British Boy Names

The unique British boy names here range from cool micro names like Ivo and Zeno to weighty Anglo-Saxon names like Hereward and Wyndham. Family surnames as middle names are also very popular, giving rise to some impressive full name combinations, like Archibald William Lovelace and Orlando Dare Fiteni.

Native British boy names like Welsh Carew, Scottish Hamish and English Kenelm are perfect for those seeking unusual baby names with a British flavor. As are quirky choices with a jaunty rhythm, like Jolyon, Peregrine and Zebedee.

The boy names below only appeared once in the Telegraph announcements, and don’t feature at all in the US Top 1000.

1. Anatole

2. Archibald

3. Bartholomew

4. Bertram

5. Basil

6. Carew

7. Casimir

8. Constantine

9. Deverell

10. Evelio

11. Finch

12. Fitzjames

13. Hamish

14. Hereward

15. Inigo

16. Ivo

17. Jolyon

18. Kelso

19. Kenelm

20. Laszlo

21. Lovelace

22. Machabee

23. Merlin

24. Montague

25. Olivier

26. Peregrine

27. Redvers

28. Sinclair

29. Tassilo

30. Torquhil

31. Tudor

32. Valentine

33. Wilbur

34. Wyndham

35. Zebedee

36. Zeno

Which are your favorite unusual British baby names? What would you name a boy and girl from these lists?

For the full stats and some amazing name combos and sibling sets from this year’s Telegraph birth announcements, head over to our forums to join the conversation!