Obvious Flower Names

Violet

English from Latin

"purple"

Violet is soft and sweet, yet with a vivacious edge. Today, Violet is the top flower name for girls, outranking Lily and Iris in the Top 100, and the most popular color name for girls, pulling ahead…

Lily

English flower name

"lily"

Lily is the most popular of the popular delicate century-old flower names now making a return, thanks to its many irresistible attributes: a cool elegance and a lovely sound, a symbol of purity and…

Ivy

Botanical name

The quirky, offbeat and energetic botanical name Ivy is enjoying a deserved revival, propelled even higher by its choice by high-profile parents Beyonce and Jay-Z for daughter Blue Ivy. Ivy is also…

Iris

Flower name; Greek

"rainbow"

Iris has so much going for it. It's a fashionable flower name. It's a mythological name, from the Greek goddess of the rainbow. And it's a classic name, always ranking in the girls' Top 1000 but now…

Daisy

Diminutive of Margaret or flower name, English

"day's eye"

Daisy, fresh, wholesome, and energetic, is one of the flower names that burst back into bloom after a century's hibernation. In 2024, it burst back into the Top 100 for the first time since 1908.…

Rose

Latin

"rose, a flower"

Rose is derived from the Latin rosa , which referred to the flower. There is also evidence to suggest it was a Norman variation of the Germanic name Hrodohaidis, meaning "famous type," and also Hros…

Magnolia

Flower name, from French surname

"Magnol's flower"

Magnolia, a sweet-smelling Southern belle of a name made famous via the iconic Edna Ferber novel and musical Showboat , is one of the latest wave of botanical names, along with unexpected blossoms…

Jasmine

Flower name, from Persian

"gift from God"

Jasmine was derived from the Persian word yasmin , referring to the jasmine flower. Scented oil was made from the plant, and it was used as a perfume throughout the Persian Empire. Variants include…

Dahlia

Flower name, from Swedish surname

"Dahl's flower"

One of the flower names, used occasionally in Britain (where it's pronounced DAY-lee-a). It seems to have recovered from what was perceived as a slightly affected la-di-dah air. The flower was named…

Azalea

English

"azalea, a flower"

Azalea is one of the fresher flower names, along with Zinnia and Lilac, that are new to the name bouquet — in fact, it entered the Social Security list for the first time in 2012. So if Lily and Rose…

Poppy

Flower name, English from Latin

"red flower"

Poppy, unlike most floral names which are sweet and feminine, has a lot of spunk. Long popular throughout the rest of the English-speaking world, Poppy is finally starting to rise toward the top in…

Clover

Flower name, from Old English

"key"

Clover is a charming, perky choice if you want to move beyond hothouse blooms like Rose and Lily, and it's recently become a new celeb favorite, chosen by both Neal McDonough and Natasha Gregson…

Marigold

Flower name, from English

"golden flower"

Marigold, once found almost exclusively in English novels and aristocratic nurseries, is beginning to be talked about and considered here. It has a sweet, sunny, quirky feel. The marigold was the…

Lavender

English color and flower name

"purple flower"

Lavender lags far behind sweet-smelling purple-hued sister names Violet and Lila, but is starting to get some enthusiastic attention from cutting-edge namers along with other adventurous nature names…

May

Diminutive of Margaret and Mary; month name

May is a sweet old-fashioned name that hasn't been on the national charts in several decades, but is definitely sounding fresh and springlike. Parents are beginning to see it once more as one of the…

Heather

English botanical name

"small shrub"

This flower name was one of the most popular in her class in the seventies and eighties, a fact reflected in the 1989 movie Heathers , in which every snobby girl in the high school clique bears the…

Zinnia

Flower name, from German surname

"Zinn's flower"

Zinnia is an unusual floral choice with a bit more edge and energy than most and beginning to find its way onto namers' wish lists of botanical possibilities. Named after the 18th-century German…

Calla

Greek

"beautiful"

Calla is a botanical name that is much more distinctive than popular Lily or similar Callie. Rarely heard today, it did appear in the popularity lists in the last decades of the nineteenth century.…

Erica

Norse feminization of Eric or Italian word name

"eternal ruler; heather"

The straightforward Erica is a Norse feminization that was long associated with the complex, mega-popular character Erica Kane, played by Susan Lucci for decades on the soap opera All My Children .…