We intentionally chose old-fashioned names for our girls; names that were uncommon, but everyone could spell them: Sylvia and Ellen. Ella has suddenly become popular recently (probably due to Ella Enchanted), but Ellen is still uncommon.
Sylvia is one of those names that really should be rising in popularity, but isn’t. If you think about it, similar names like Olivia and Lydia are starting to be somewhat ubiquitous, but Sylvia is not. I wonder why that is?
I like some of the older-fashioned but still pretty names for girls. The name my husband and I have picked out for a girl if we have kids is Josephine Violet.
My dear departed grandmother’s name was Myrnie Elnora. Bless her heart. I’m just glad to hear of another one. Now if only I can find a Myrnie…
Anyway, I named my youngest one of those weird names. As in, I think there’s only one or two others in the US.
He’ll probably hate me later.
My name has been dropping steadily in popularity since…well, basically since I was named with it. There was a spate of popularity around that time, probably due to it being a name in a pop-song, though my mom swears that’s not where she got the name.
If I had had a son, I honestly may have named him Ebenezer. I’ve always thought that a cool name. Perhaps it’s good we’re child-free.
Isn’t Eleanor itself just one of the many variants of Helen? That would mean that “Helen” is the “correct” form. 
My given name (Isabelle) has been climbing steadily in popularity since the 90’s. It clawed its way up from below the first 1000 to a rockin’ #85 on the latest chart.
Damned if I know why… but at least it’s been helping reduce the number of people who insist on calling me “Elizabeth” or “Isabella” (or maybe not… bloody Isabella is #4 on that chart).
I’d really gotten used to being the only Isabelle I knew, but now I keep tripping over namesakes. Just the other week, I found myself on a conference call with an Isabelle and an Izabela. Made for fun times trying to figure out which of the three of us was being addressed, because I’m so damn used to assuming that “Isabelle” or “Izabela” is always ME.
Maybe I should change my name to Jessica. 
Here’s one.
Kinda cute. 
Michael breaks into the top twenty in thirty nine, hits number one in 1953, and stays number one until 1999. It’s still number two. That is one hell of lot of guys named Michael. I suppose my anonymity won’t be seriously compromised to admit that I am one of them.
Tris
Sacrilege! The fact that you’re absolutely correct has NOTHING to do with anything. Let that be a lesson to you in future.
(and I dislike the name Helen, so there).
The name “Eben,” which is a nickname for Ebenezer, was on my short list when I was pregnant. My husband didn’t like it, though, and our 4-month-old is named Jonah Thomas.
We – as a society – tend to name our children after our grandparents or great-grandparents, but not our parents. That’s why Daisy and Lily and Mabel are coming back in. My son’s middle name is my grandfather’s name, and part of why we liked the name Jonah is because it’s somewhat old-fashioned (but without being weird).
We pored over the SSA baby name lists (well, I did, anyway) because we didn’t want to give our child a too-popular name. That said, I loooooove the name Abigail, and if we’d had a girl, there was a great chance that she’d have had that name even if it is really popular right now. I’m really curious to see where “Jonah” lands on the 2007 popularity ranking – I assume it will be going up in popularity (from the 150s or so, I think), because it hasn’t been common in previous years and because Biblical names (especially Old Testament) have been popular for boys for the last few years.
Eleanor was also on our short list for girls, BTW.
My name was ranked #33 in 1992, then dropped all the way to #158 in 2006.
Apparently in 1983, when I was born, it was #16.
That’s quite a fall from grace, Christina.
I go by Christy, though. And it’s almost always Kristies and Kristinas I’m running into.
I named one of my daughters Alexandria - dont see too many of those around these days. My other daughter, well, I had every intention of naming her kinda-sorta after my mom. Mary Anastasia (calling her Mary Ann for short) but mom said that was too long of a name so it ended up being a Jessica… and sadly, I was told I had to name her before we left the hospital (poor girl didnt have a first name for a week). She looks like a Mary to me, and I tell her. She’s glad I went with Jessica. Now given the options - I would name a girl Cliodhna, and if I had a boy, John (Jack as a nickname) or Frank.
Christopher, in the top 10 for ever it seems.
I was one of those kids that always had the first initial of my last name said in the same breath as Chris.
My name is one of those super popular girl names. Starts with a J.
My mom, however, has always called me Ruth or Ruthie (for reasons unknown and not thoroughly understood by anyone including her). I wonder sometimes how my life would be different if that was really my name. I kind of like it.
That’s how I was named, after a popular book my mother was reading while pregnant with me. Forever Amber - It tells the story of orphaned Amber St. Clare, who makes her way through 17th century English society by sleeping with more and more important men.
(What was she trying to set me up for?)
I enjoyed a brief spate of popularity in the 1900’s (ranking 878) where naming children after gems was the thing to do. Nothing until the book was published in the 1940’s, I peaked in popularity in the 90’s and I’ve gone downhill ever since.
I worked in a maternity unit from August until December this year.
I noticed two trends.
The first was that one mother would call her baby “Alfie” and then every other mother in the ward with a new son who hadn’t picked a name yet (and most of them haven’t decided until day 2 or 3) would decide that the name was lovely and suddenly we had six new babies called “Alfie”.
The second was that lots of parents wanted to call the baby (usually a boy) after a living relative, but not exactly the same name (to avoid confusion), so a lot of people were going for Irish versions of the names instead (this being Ireland).
We had:
Sean (Shawn) for John
Cathal (KA-hal) for Charles
Padraig (PAW-rik) for Patrick
Seamus (Shamus) for James
Tadgh (TYE-guh) for a Tim
Daithi (DA-hee) for a David
Eibhlin (EVE-lin) who was a girl named for an Elaine
The alternative is to add “Óg” (Irish for younger) to the end of the name (so Sean Óg is Sean’s son) and some people chose to do that instead of “irishifying” the name.
We also had a run of more unusual Irish names, which is related to the OP.
Seoirse (Irish for George, pronounced SHOR-sha, a boy’s name) and
Saoirse (Irish for freedom, pronounced SEER-sha, usually a girls name)
The above two names shouldn’t be confused with the more common Sorcha (Irish for Sarah, pronounced ZOR-aka, a girls name).
Oisín (pronounced awe-SHEEN, a boys name)
Odhran (ORE-an, a boy’s name)
Finally, we had Iollan (UL-an) and his twin sister Ultana (UL-tan-a), both names were new to me.
What’s causing the trouble is that hurricane a few years ago - “Georges”, I think it was. It was pronounced “Yeouryeaea”, only without the vowells, and the “r” is kind of silent.
I’m naming my baby Annabel, and my grandmother doesn’t like it. I think she thinks it’s an old lady name. 
She wanted me to go with either of my other choices - Eloise or Alice - but IMO all of them are quite equally old fashioned.
Annabel is
a) uncommon without being unheard of. It’s not in the Top 100 baby names for my state so there shouldn’t be a massive contingent of Annabels at school with her (a la Michelle when I was at school).
b) Versatile. It has several natural shortened forms so if she doesn’t like it, she can modify it to suit herself
c) Pretty, and clearly a girl’s name. I’m not a fan of androgynous names.
On the minus side
a) it has several common spelling variations and it’s easily misheard as “Annabella” so she’ll probably spend her life spelling it out to people, but that’s almost unavoidable with any name (Is it John or Jon? Amy or Aimee? I’m fighting an ongoing battle against the “e” that perpetually alights at the end of “Carol”).
b) It’s on the long side (I partly chose “Annabel” over “Annabelle” because I thought seven letters was enough).
c) I was briefly worried that Annabel mightn’t age well (suit a child better than an adult) but that week the television and newspaper served up a slew of Annabels aged in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s - mostly doctors and lawyers - and I relaxed about it because the name didn’t seem childish or unsuitable for them.
I love the name Annabel.
When I have children it will be important for me to choose names that are, as you said, uncommon but not unheard of.
I know few people with my name who are my age, but if the frequent instances in grocery stores, in which I have been startled to hear a strange mom screaming my name down the aisle, are any indicator, it’s become very popular in the past 5 years or so.
It’s kind of annoying to me. I feel like less of an individual lately.