Unique Baby Boy Names

Laura Wattenberg is the author of "The Baby Name Wizard: A Magical Method for Finding the Perfect Name for Your Baby" (Broadway; February 2005). A writer, researcher and software designer, she wrote this book after becoming frustrated in her search for names for her two daughters.

You see a car drive by with a metallic avocado finish, and you know you're looking at the pride of 1973. You see a dress in neon chartreuse, and it's just like we're back in 1999.

As colors are to fashion, letters are to unique baby boy names. They come in and out of fashion, alone and in combinations. The popular letters of today sound quirky and exotic, the kind of letters that beg for individual attention.

But how do parents know exactly which letters are the most exotic?

Easy.

"We never know the love of the parent till we become parents ourselves"

- Henry Ward Beecher

This was answered by an unemployed architect named Alfred Butts, who in the early 20th century invented the game of Scrabble. Butts chose point values for letters based on their popular usage of the time, with the workhorse letters (vowels, l, n, r, s, t) worth one point, and the rare and unusual letters far more.

Those 20th century value assignments remain a good benchmark for current day letter "exoticness". The same letters that stand out to you from a rack of Scrabble tiles, for example the Z and Q (the 10-pointers), X and J (8), and K (5) also stand out in a personal name. Think Xavier, Jackson, Max, Zachary or Kai.

These letters seem to be the favourite first place in the alphabet for parents who want a unique baby boy name.

Here you see the percentage of babies whose names include at least one of these exotic letters, either as the first letter (blue) or anywhere in the name (green):

Since 1900, the rate has nearly doubled. The top 100 baby boy names in modern times feature more and more of these exotic letters.

A few interesting points to consider in this graph above:

The first letter of the name accounts for more than half the occurrences of high-value letters. The exotic ones don't seem to mix well with the low scores. Letters like Q are rarely seen in the middle of a name.
The letter J is a popular one. It's rare in common English words, however personal names more often have Hebrew roots, making J a common naming letter as you will see in the top 100 baby boy names.

Any traditional name with a Q, X or Z now has a shot at the top 100 baby boy names. Xavier, Axel, Maximilian, Ezekiel, Felix and Quinton were obscurities a generation ago, but all are more and more popular these days. For example, Zachary, once lost in the dark depths of the old testament is now an everyday standard personal name.

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To broaden the field, parents now are also adding some 21st century spice to standard names with some scrabble power.
Some popular choices:

Alexander - Alexzander
Jackson - Jaxon
James - Jaymz
Xavier - Xzavier

So if it's truly unique personal names you desire, then it's probably best to avoid any in the following list.