Fading Names

Names on the way down. Not a warning: a falling name is a name fewer children in the class will share, and roughly half of the vintage list spent decades here first.

Rankings for

347 names, uncommon — 100 to 499 a year, in the United States

Very Rare Rare Uncommon

Girls Boys Unisex

Makenna Peaked in 2005 · 36,240 births since 1982
Girl 495 in 2025
Mohammed Mohammed is a boy's name of Arabic origin meaning "praiseworthy."
Boy Arabic 486 in 2025
Marina Marina means of the sea, and it charts in six markets inside 276 places — Scotland 572nd, England and Wales 581st, the United States 602nd, Ireland 647th and France 848th, which is an unusually even international spread.
Girl Latin 488 in 2025
Caiden Caiden is a boy's name with no established etymology, a modern respelling that reference sites trace to an Irish surname it probably has nothing to do with.
Boy uncertain 475 in 2025
Alejandra Alejandra means defender of men, and the Spanish form lost a consonant Greek never had trouble with — Alexandros became Alejandro because Spanish shifted the sh sound to the throaty j it uses today.
Girl Spanish 486 in 2025
Estrella Peaked in 2005 · 17,403 births since 1914
Girl Spanish 477 in 2025
Sierra Sierra means a mountain range, and the Spanish word is literally a saw — ranges were named for the jagged sawtooth profile they cut against the sky.
Girl Spanish 476 in 2025
Jaiden Jaiden belongs to the -aiden rhyming family invented in America in the 1990s, and the Hebrew meanings offered for it are attached to a coinage — thankful one and God will judge cannot both be right.
Unisex American 472 in 2025
Keira Keira rose twice, two years apart, and both markets moved together — American births went 433 in 2003 to 1,244 in 2004, then on to 3,022 by 2006, with England and Wales tracing the same two steps in the same years.
Girl Irish 469 in 2025
Keegan Keegan descends from a pagan god, not a small flame — Aodh was the Irish deity of fire and the sun, and the diminutive gloss softens a name that originally invoked him.
Boy Irish 497 in 2025
Kylian Peaked in 2007 · 35,974 births since 1989
Boy 448 in 2025
Dominick Dominick means of the Lord, and it was given to children born on a Sunday — dies dominica is the Lord's day, and the name records the day of birth rather than a hope for the child.
Boy Latin 448 in 2025
Gustavo Gustavo has no settled meaning, and the two accounts disagree on the language — a Norse staff of the Geats, or a Slavic name reshaped by Swedish, and neither has carried the field.
Boy Italian 447 in 2025
Arturo Arturo means bear, probably — but Arthur is one of the unsolved names, with a Celtic word for bear and a Roman family name both proposed and neither established.
Boy Italian 446 in 2025
Lexi Lexi is a girl's name of Greek origin meaning "defender of men," a diminutive of Alexandra taken from the middle of the name rather than the start.
Girl English 464 in 2025
Kenzo Peaked in 2014 · 22,141 births since 1985
Boy 445 in 2025
Cassandra Cassandra is a girl's name from Greek myth, borne by a prophet cursed to see the future and never be believed.
Girl Greek 463 in 2025
Gabrielle Gabrielle is a girl's name of Hebrew origin meaning "God is my strength," the French feminine of Gabriel.
Girl French 471 in 2025
Raul Raul means wolf counsel, and it is the same name as Ralph and Rudolph — one Norse compound that entered Spanish, English and German separately and ended up looking like three different names.
Boy Spanish 440 in 2025
Destiny Destiny is a word name meaning a fixed future, and its root is a verb about standing firm — the Latin destinare means to make fast or fix in place, so the idea is settled rather than foreseen.
Girl English 458 in 2025
Julio Julio means downy-bearded, and France ranks it 517th — above the United States at 641st, which is not where a Spanish form of a Roman family name would be expected to lead.
Boy Spanish 436 in 2025
Shelby Shelby is a girl's name from an English place name of Norse formation meaning a willow farm.
Girl English 485 in 2025
Miranda Miranda was coined by Shakespeare for The Tempest around 1611, from the Latin for to be wondered at.
Girl Latin 437 in 2025
Briana Briana is a feminine of Brian, and it first appears in Spenser's Faerie Queene in 1590 — which makes it one of very few names whose earliest recorded use is a specific poem.
Girl Irish 431 in 2025
Mauricio Peaked in 2008 · 24,725 births since 1885
Boy Spanish 413 in 2025
Marisol Peaked in 1996 · 36,016 births since 1953
Girl Spanish 423 in 2025
Gerardo Gerardo means brave with a spear, and both halves are weapons talk — the Germanic joins the word for a spear to one meaning hardy, which is the same ger that hides inside garlic.
Boy Italian 401 in 2025
Jenna Jenna is a girl's name that began as an elaboration of Jenny and is now used independently.
Girl English 418 in 2025
Trevor Trevor is a Welsh place name meaning big settlement, and the first element is the tre that begins a great many Cornish and Welsh place names — Tregaron, Trelawney, Treharris and several hundred others besides.
Boy Welsh 400 in 2025
Alondra Alondra means lark, and a Roman legion was named for the bird — Caesar raised the Legio V Alaudae in Gaul and it took the lark's name, probably from crested plumes on the helmets.
Girl Spanish 417 in 2025
Coraline Peaked in 1996 · 16,244 births since 1954
Girl French 414 in 2025
Kinley Peaked in 2012 · 21,519 births since 1917
Girl 409 in 2025
Makenzie Makenzie means son of the handsome one, which is an odd fit for a name that is 99 percent female on record — the Gaelic Mac is a patronymic, and it has not been reinterpreted.
Girl Scottish 406 in 2025
Jayson Peaked in 2004 · 41,887 births since 1922
Boy Dutch 384 in 2025
Angelica Angelica is both a name and a plant, and the plant is named for the angel — a medieval legend has one reveal it as a cure during plague, which is why it was grown in monastery gardens.
Girl Latin 398 in 2025
Jazmin Jazmin respells a Persian word that traveled the length of Eurasia — yasmin passed through Arabic into Europe with the plant itself, which is why the word is near-identical in a dozen unrelated languages.
Girl American 395 in 2025
Jase Peaked in 2013 · 25,961 births since 1967
Boy 380 in 2025
Macy Peaked in 2003 · 40,254 births since 1885
Girl 390 in 2025
Abby Abby means my father is joy, and France ranks it 322nd — ahead of Scotland at 359th, Ireland at 453rd and the United States at 731st, which is not where an English diminutive of a Hebrew name should lead.
Girl English 379 in 2025
Maisy Peaked in 2010 · 11,920 births since 1996
Girl Scottish 365 in 2025
Mikayla Mikayla respells Michaela, and the Hebrew behind both is a question — who is like God — whose expected answer is nobody.
Girl American 364 in 2025
Karina Karina means pure or beloved depending on which parent it takes, and neither has a settled meaning — Catherine's Greek original was never derived, and the Latin route gives a different sense entirely.
Girl Scandinavian 363 in 2025
Mathéo Mathéo is a boy's name of Hebrew origin meaning "gift of God," a French form built from Matthieu on the Italian pattern.
Boy French 344 in 2025
Salvador Salvador means savior, and it names a country and an ocean crossing — El Salvador is the only nation named directly for Christ, and San Salvador was the first island Columbus reached.
Boy Spanish 341 in 2025
Brayan Peaked in 2006 · 20,840 births since 1979
Boy Latin American Spanish 334 in 2025
Dulce Peaked in 2007 · 20,617 births since 1914
Girl Spanish 352 in 2025
Keaton Peaked in 2007 · 27,918 births since 1925
Boy 419 in 2025
Maci Peaked in 2011 · 23,627 births since 1973
Girl Seediq 352 in 2025

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