How we rank rarity
A name is rare on RareList when few people search for it. Here is where the names come from, how we measure them, and where the method falls short.
Where the names come from
Animal names (3,878) and most fruit names (255) come from Princeton WordNet, a lexical database of English, which also supplies the one-line definitions. We added fruit names from the public-domain Corpora project and a short, hand-checked list of familiar names WordNet misses, such as the quokka and the yuzu.
We removed scientific names (for example Ursus maritimus), words that only describe an age or sex (calf, ewe), taxonomy terms that are not names people actually use (ungulate, placental), and words whose search traffic is mostly about something else (Amazon, the parrot). When a species has several names, the most searched one leads and the rest appear as “also”.
Countries (195) are the 193 member states of the United Nations plus its two observer states, the Holy See (Vatican City) and the State of Palestine. Disputed and dependent territories are left out. Continents and regions follow the UN M49 standard. Capitals come from the open mledoze/countries dataset (ODbL), checked by hand: where a country has more than one capital we say so, and where the capital is disputed or could not be confirmed we leave it out. When a country has two common English names, such as Czechia and Czech Republic, the more searched one leads.
Vegetables (221) come from WordNet plus the Corpora vegetable list, leaving out herbs, spices and potato dishes. Names whose searches are mostly about something else (chili, Chile, the Chipotle restaurant) are listed under another name, such as chili pepper or chipotle pepper, with that name’s figure.
Foods (1,372) also come from WordNet: dishes, breads, cheeses, sweets, meats, seafood and sauces, with fresh fruit, vegetables, drinks, herbs and spices left out. We dropped category words (dessert, seafood) and names whose searches are mostly about something else (stock, charlotte, heart); where such a food has another name, such as broth or corn dodger, that name is listed instead. A few everyday foods share their name with an animal, a country or a common word (turkey, chicken, jam). Their plain search figure cannot be used, so they are marked “est.” and placed by how common the word is, the same rule we use for very common animal names.
The capital cities list uses the same capitals, with one entry per city where a country splits its capital functions (South Africa, Bolivia, Benin, the Netherlands and Eswatini). A capital whose name mostly means something else, such as Victoria or Georgetown, is measured by searches for the city plus its country and marked “est.”. The landlocked countries list takes its landlocked flag from the same mledoze/countries dataset.
How we measure rarity
For each name we took the average monthly Google searches in the United States over the last 12 months, from Google Ads keyword data (collected November 2026). Search interest is a good stand-in for how readily a name comes to mind: if almost nobody searches for it, almost nobody will write it down in a game.
- Plankton
- The names everyone says first. Safe, but in a rare-answer game they barely score. 100K+ searches a month
- Too Clever
- Feels like a clever pick, but plenty of other players will think of it too. 10K–100K a month
- Schooler
- Real names many people know but few would say first. 1K–10K a month
- Rare
- Recognizable to enthusiasts; a strong pick in rare-answer games. 100–1K a month
- Deep Cut
- Correct and checkable, but only specialists reach for them. 10–99 a month
- One in a Krillion
- So rarely searched that Google reports almost nothing. Make sure you can explain it. Under 10 a month
The tier names borrow the labels that players of the daily game Krillion already know. RareList is not affiliated with Krillion, and every tier here is set by our own search data, not by Krillion's scoring. See Krillion tiers explained for examples and how the two differ.
Where the method falls short
- Some names share spelling with something more popular. A name like Jaguar or Mustang gets searches meant for cars, so it looks more common than the animal alone would. We fix the worst cases by hand and drop names that are mostly about something else.
- A few very common words had no reliable figure; they are marked “est.” and placed in the tier their common use suggests.
- Country names shared with something else (Georgia the US state, Jordan the name, Turkey the bird, Chad the name) are also marked “est.”: their figure comes from searches for the name plus “country”, or from the country's other name.
- Search data is US-only for now. A name that is common in Australia or the UK can still look rare here.
- Breeds and cultivars are tagged so you can hide them; some games do not accept a breed as an answer.
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