Two Irish names amongst RAREST baby names in the US (2024)

November 13, 2022November 9, 2022 by Katie Morris

If you’re looking for a unique name for your newborn going into 2023, experts have revealed which names were the least used in the past couple of years that could be making a comeback.

Naming your child is a huge deal! It’s something that usually remains with them their whole lives unless, of course, they decide to change it.

The Daily Mail spoke to baby name experts Nameberry’s CEO Pamela Redmond to find out which names remain hidden gems, with less than 25 parents in the US using them for their newborns in 2021.

Pamela Redmond explained that picking a name is always so difficult because it says so much about the child’s personality and family identity.

So, read on to discover the lesser-spotted names in the US in the past couple of years, including two Irish names, if you want to give your child a really unique name.

Two Irish names amongst rarest baby names in the US – a lesser-spotted name in recent years

The first Irish name that is amongst the rarest baby names in the US in recent years is Lorcan. Lorcan, or Lorcán, is an ancient Irish name and means ‘little fierce one’.

It is a name that was given to many kings and saints in Ireland, including Saint Lorcan Ua Tuathaill, the Archbishop of Dublin at the time of the Norman invasion of Ireland.

The name Lorcan was only given to 13 babies in 2021 in the US, so if you’re looking for an uncommon name with a beautiful meaning, Lorcan is the one!

The second Irish name – most commonly a surname

The second Irish name that is amongst some of the rarest baby names in the US is Rafferty. Rafferty comes from the Irish surname Ó’Raifeartaigh and would have been most commonly used as a second name.

This is a very rare moniker, and according to Nameberry, only 18 boys were given this name in the US in 2021.

The word itself comes from the Old Irish ‘rath’, meaning ‘prosperity’. In turn, the name is said to mean ‘one who will prosper’ or ‘abundance’. It was perhaps most notably given as a first name to Jude Law and Sadie Frost’s son in 1996.

The other rarest names in the US – often overlooked names that could be making a comeback

There are eight other names that Pamela Redmond says we shouldn’t overlook. For girls, Hester was given to fewer than five girls in recent years in the US.

Hester is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, set in Puritan Massachusetts in the 19^th century.

The book has now seen a revamp with Laurie Lico Albanese’s reimaging of the book, Hester, seen from the lead character’s point of view.

Other female names include Romilly, Bee, Lilac, and Ottilie. For boys, the other rarest names include Grover, Ajax, and Zebedee.

A study earlier this month showed that the names Brydie, Gladys, and Neville are facing extinction in 2023.