Unique Girl Names: Uncommon, Unusual, Cool

This ancient Scottish surname may be pagan in origin, referring to a "holy day", but today it makes an attractive and unique Scottish name for girls. Halliday has many spelling variations and traveled throughout the British Isles and to France, where it has royal associations, and eventually to the new world. Johnny Hallyday was a French pop star.

If Erykah Badu can name her son Seven, why can't you name your daughter (or son) this? Eleven has recently gotten a lot of attention via the character on the TV show Stranger Things.

Quinlan is an Irish surname name given to a few dozen baby girls in the US each year. With the success of Quinn as a girls' name, Quinlan and its variant spellings Quinlin and Quinlyn might follow behind.

Old and aristocratic European name that would be tough for an American kid to pull off.

This Italian boys name has started to be used on girls, with 251 girls in the US being given this appellation in 2021. Beware that the gender neutral names trend isn't international, and a female Gianni travelling through Europe is likely to be given a lot more grief. May we suggest the feminine Gianna or modern Giann as alternatives? For whatever gender, Gianni is one of the most popular Italian baby names around.

Zenovia makes Zenobia even more unusual. This mythology-adjacent name is worth a look.

The energetic Brody is a name that claims different meanings and origins depending on whether you're looking at its Irish, Scottish, or English history -- and Eastern Europeans claim a version too. This spelling is much more popular for boys, but has seen some use for girls in recent years, including volleyball player Gabrielle Reese's daughter. An alternate spelling is Brodie.

The final -e takes this from a daring word name to a literary honor name, for the inimitable Irish author, poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, infamous for his wit and flamboyance.

Esha is a lovely Indian name that would work well outside the Indian sub-continent, perhaps as a substitute to the more unisex Asher.

This beautiful celestial Indian name had a rise in 2022, following in the trends of other "-ani" ending names like Leilani and Imani. The character Devi from the hit show "Never Have I Ever" familiarized the world with another beautiful name of the same root.

Sarika is a pretty Sanskrit nature name, referring to a type of myna bird. Spelled Sárika, it's the Hungarian version of Sarah.

Variation of Ejiroghene

Derby might be considered a word name or a surname-name. In England, it would be pronounced darby, causing confusion with that similar name.

The name of a nymph in Greek mythology, one of the prophetic Thriai, who divined the future by throwing pebbles. She was a lover of the sea god Poseidon.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian have done it again for their third child: Chosen a name that feels iconic yet strangely inevitable. They named North and Saint's younger sister Chicago, after Kanye's hometown. The name Chicago derives from a Native American word for "wild garlic," which once grew plentifully in the Illinois city, the third most populous in the US.

Gelila is a beautiful Ethiopian name that may have two different origins — some sources cite the name as a variation of the Biblical place Galilee, meaning rolling hills. Others view the name as a variation of Biblical Delilah. Whichever way, Gelila is a gorgeous name that would work well in the English-speaking world. The name Gelila is also worn by Ethiopian model Gelila Bekele, former longtime girlfriend of actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry with whom she shares a son.

Soft and appealing, with a whiff of vanilla.