Baby names often come in and out of fashion. What may have been popular in years gone by, may seem ridiculous to a younger generation.
Name trends have changed so much, that some of the rarest titles could be at risk of extinction, as parents snub them in favour of more popular options. Names like Fifi, Blessing and Corby are used so little that they may soon cease to exist.
As possibilities for baby names are endless, some evolve into rarer monikers. Moments through history and culture also impact parents' name choices. So, how can we determine which baby names are now the rarest?
The experts over at Play Like Mum have gone through the Office of National Statistics (ONS) baby name data to gather a list of the top 50 rarest names for boys and girls, reports the Mirror.
They said: "We dug deep into the latest available ONS data, looking at a list of over 3,000 of the rarest names, and narrowed it down to 50 for boys and 50 for girls. Included in our list are some of the best and more unusual names, including some names inspired by popular culture.
"Our original list of 3,000 names consisted of the names which were registered just three times in England and Wales over the course of the year 2020. For privacy reasons, names registered two times or fewer were withheld by the Office of National Statistics. "
Included in the rarest names for girls was Antonietta, which sounds Italian but actually has French and Latin origins and it means “priceless”.
Others on the list were Fifi, Elke, Marvel and Saffi. Fifi is often used as a common nickname for Ophelia, Phoebe or Fiona but hasn't been given as a first name on its own in a while.
This could be due to it being 10 years since Fifi and the Flowertots stopped airing on British children’s television. The moniker is of Spanish and French origin and means ‘Jehovah increases’.
Elke is a rather unique-sounding name, with German and Dutch origins and is pronounced as 'El-ka', while the name Marvel has been given to just three babies since 2020 - which might surprise you given the success of the comics and movies.
Concluding the top five choices is Saffi, which is a name with Greek origins meaning “wisdom”. It is also a name linked with Sophie, which could make Saffi a great choice as an alternative.
For the boys, the top five consisted of Daniel-James, Drake, Esteban, Wiley and Vincentas.
The parenting experts at Play Like Mum say there were many hyphenated first names in their list, but they found Daniel-James most interesting as it's also the name of a Premier League footballer and they're surprised it's not inspired more parents.
Drake is one you might also expect to be popular, due to the rapper of the same name, but it seems that not many mums and dads have opted to use the moniker, which means 'dragon' or 'snake'.
The name Esteban is actually a Spanish variation of the name Stephen. In Spain, Esteban means “crown”, suggesting a sense of regalness.
While Wiley is sometimes used as a nickname for William and Vincentas is a different version of the name Vincent - but in Latin it means 'winner'.
Here's a full list of the rarest baby names in the UK, in alphabetical order.
Top 50 Rarest boys names
Acen
Addy
Aristotle
Blessing
Brooke
Cloud
Corby
Daniel-James
Darriyan
Drake
Duran
Elison
Ennio
Esteban
Fitzgerald
Foivos
Glory
Icarus
Jesus
Kairi
Kleart
Laker
Lion
Long
Loyal
Ludwick
Majestyu
Major
Neymar
Othello
Ousmane
Revel
Reiko
Renelle
Sokratis
Solton
Spike
Stanislas
Takumi
Thorn
Tiano
Tinotenda
Turner
Uri
Vincentas
Vitaly
Wiley
Xabier
Ziekiel
Zico
Top 50 rarest girls names
Acer
Antonietta
Aphrodite
Aubriella
Beverley
Bloom
Doadicea
Cartier
Cheryl
Cyan
Delphina
Despina
Dorsa
Elke
Elleri
Fabiana
Fifi
Firdous
Flossie
Foteini
Fox
Georgette
Gray
Happiness
Hodo
Hooriyah
Israel
Ixia
Jersie
James
Julianne
Justina
Karabella
Lagatha
Loveday
Malibu
Marvel
Meeka
Oceanna
Peace
Pebbles
Red
Rehab
Royal
Saffi
Tasmin
Tennessee
Tuba
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