In the newborn photography world, I see hundreds of babies – all amazingly and beautifully different. I also get the fun pleasure of hearing all sorts of baby names from traditional, to names with personal meaning to the parents, some very unique in their own way.  I was chatting with my husband about this and decided to write about my favourite Top 10 Unique Baby Names of 2023.

Now more than ever it seems as though unique baby names are on the rise. You can’t blame parents for wanting a different name for their child, gone are the days when there were 5 children in the same class with the same name!

In my own experience, with both children we had a few backups going in.  Once our babies arrived, we were able to look at them, taking in their beautiful little faces and the names naturally came.

For those of you still on the hunt for some ideas, this blog may help!

Here are my picks for the Top 10 unique baby names I have heard in the studio this year.  I checked in with the website www.behindthename.com to give some insight into the meanings of these unique names.

I will start with the girls:

1. Lyra –The name of the constellation in the northern sky containing the star Vega
2. Meadow – From the English word, meadow.  This name rose in popularity after it was used as the name of Tony Soprano’s daughter not he HBO series The Sopranos (1999-200
3. Zola – From the Xhosa root – zola meaning “calm”
4. Wren – From the English word for the small songbird
5. Sage – From the English word sage, with denotes either a type of spice – or what I would prefer to take from it, a wise person!

Now here are my top 5 picks for unique boys names:

1. Darian – An elaborated form of Darren
2. Leighton – A variant of Layton
3. Gable – Traditionally used as a surname, but I love it as a first name
4. Addax – of American origin meaning ‘white antelope”
5. Foster – Another name traditionally a surname, which I have now seen a few times as a first name

Other things many parents consider when choosing a name are:

• Did I know a person with that name growing up, and if so, what association do you have with it?  One of my favourite names for my son was vetoed by my partner because of a negative association from school – I know this happens a lot!

• Will my child be teased?  Fortunately times have changed and kids are much more tolerant with the unique, often embracing it rather than pointing it out with negativity.

• Initials.  Naturally, it would be a good idea to stay away from having the initials BM, POS, SOB, GAS, BUM… well you get the idea.

With a new year coming just around the corner, I am so excited to hear all of the birth stories and some brand new names of the newest members of our world.  In the meantime, happy baby naming and head on over to my home page www.claudinelavoie.ca to have a look around – I love having you here!

xo Claudine