Cool, unusual girls' names: The best 100

Our challenge this week was to bring you "cool uncommon baby names." Our criteria: Scour the 25,000 names given to 25 or fewer babies last year and pick the 100 best.

Now we're going to bring you the 200 best, 100 for girls and another 100 for boys (next week). These cool unusual girls' names have deep roots, are attractive, can fit into contemporary life, yet are not on the brink of widespread discovery.

If you'd like to pore over the master list of girls' names used in the U.S. last year (for five or more children, as per privacy laws), we now include it on nameberry (nameberry.com/blog/popular-baby-names/girls-names-2009) . And true name nerds or obsessive name searchers can go here 9 (www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/limits.html) to download the entire zip file of all the names used every year stretching back to 1880. If you want to wade through the rosters yourself, we'd love to hear your picks for best undiscovered names!

But we warn you, the lists are monsters, and the further down you go on the list, the more names there are: There are 15,000 used for 25 or fewer girls alone. Here, what we think are the 100 best cool unusual girls' names:

1. ADIRA

2. ALBANY

3. ALBERTA

4. AMABEL

5. AMBROSIA

6. ANNORA

7. ANOUK

8. ANTONINA

9. AUGUSTINA

10. AUSTEN

11. BEA

12. BELLAMY

13. BIRDIE

14. BLANCHE

15. BRANWEN

16. CAIA

17. CARMELITA

18. CELESTIA

19. CERYS

20. CICELY

21. CIRCE