Flower names are not only for girls. Half of this list is masculine, pulled from roses, thistles, and the men those blooms were named after.
Below are 100 of them, split evenly, 50 for girls and 50 for boys. Each entry gives you the origin, the meaning, the flower behind the name, and, where the name has charted, exactly where it stands on the latest US lists.
Four of these sit inside the US top 40 for girls in 2025, according to Social Security Administration data. Violet is 13th, Lily 18th, Hazel 21st, and Ivy 39th. Others, like Celosia, Garance, and Nanala, have never charted here at all.
Popularity at a Glance
The most popular names on this list in the United States, 1965 to 2025: James, William, Violet, Lily and Hazel.
- James
- William
- Violet
- Lily
- Hazel
50 Flower Names for Girls
Fifty girls’ names follow, taken from the blooms themselves, the botanists the flowers were named after, or the colors and myths attached to them.
1. Amber
Amber travelled a long way before it became a girls’ name. It reached English in the mid-1300s from the Arabic anbar, which named ambergris rather than the fossil resin, and only later attached itself to the Baltic fossil resin, which is where its golden color sense comes from.
Its flower link is quiet. Flower Carpet amber roses bloom in a soft peach-pink, so unless someone grows that particular rose they will hear the gem and nothing else. That suits parents who want a floral tie without a colored flower announcing itself in every introduction.
2. Ambrosia
Ambrosia is the food of the Greek gods, from ambrotos, meaning immortal. It is a large claim for a small person, and it wears surprisingly lightly.
Botanically the genus is ragweed, which produces modest green flowers and a great deal of late-summer pollen. That is not the association most parents lead with, so think of Ambrosia as a myth name first and a plant name second. Amber, Rosie, and Bree all sit inside it if you want something shorter for the playground.
3. Azalea
Azalea comes from the Greek azaleos, meaning dry, a nod to the parched soil the first classified species tolerated.
The name has climbed steadily rather than spiking. It sat at 893rd for American girls in 2012 and reached 278th in 2025, which puts it in the comfortable middle: familiar enough that nobody blinks, uncommon enough that your daughter is unlikely to share it with a classmate.
4. Belladonna
Belladonna is Italian for beautiful lady, and Linnaeus chose it deliberately. Renaissance women used diluted drops of the plant to widen their pupils, an effect the fashion of the day considered attractive.
It was a genuinely dangerous habit. The drops block the muscles that narrow the pupil, and prolonged use was reputed to cost women their sight. The plant’s alkaloid, atropine, is still purified for accepted medical uses today. As a name it is dramatic, gothic, and shortens neatly to Bella or Donna.
5. Blossom
Blossom descends from the Anglo-Saxon blostma, the flower of a plant, which makes it about as literal as a flower name gets.
Most Americans still hear the 1990s sitcom, where Mayim Bialik played teenager Blossom Russo opposite Joey Lawrence. Enough time has passed that a child named Blossom today reads as fresh rather than retro, and it stays a sunny, open-vowelled choice for parents who want something unmistakably cheerful.
6. Calla
Calla is Greek in origin and means beautiful, which the calla lily earns with its single curved white spathe.
The name was far more common in the late 1800s than it is now, so it carries that turn-of-the-century formality without feeling fussy. Two syllables, easy to spell, and it slots beside Ella, Layla, and Nella without copying any of them.
7. Cecelia
Cecelia comes from the Latin caecus, meaning blind, by way of the Roman family name Caecilius.
The floral connection is a specialist one: Cecelia M. Beale is a named variety of heather. Most people will reach for the song instead, since Simon and Garfunkel put Cecelia on the radio permanently in 1970. Between the saint, the heather, and the harmony, it is a name with three separate stories attached.
8. Celosia
This Greek name, said suh-LOH-zhuh, comes from keleos, meaning burning, chosen for flower heads that look like standing flame.
Growers split celosia into two forms: plumed woolflowers that rise in feathery spires, and crested cockscombs that fold into dense velvety ridges. Both come in reds and oranges hot enough to justify the etymology. Celosia has never charted in the United States. That keeps it genuinely unusual, and Cece and Lo are both waiting inside it as nicknames.
9. Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemum came into English in the 1550s from Greek khrysanthemon, literally golden flower, from khrysos meaning gold and anthemon meaning flower.
What the bloom stands for shifts entirely by culture and era. Depending on where you ask, chrysanthemums carry sorrow, longevity, passion, joy, friendship, or optimism, which is an unusually wide range for one flower. As a given name it is a mouthful, so most parents who love it use it in full on the certificate and call her Chryssie, Sunny, or Mum day to day.
10. Clover
Clover comes from Middle English claver and Old English clafre, which meant exactly what it means now. The deeper West Germanic root is tied to sticky pap, a reference to the plant’s thick juice, which bees turn into honey.
The name is newer than the word. Clover only entered the American top 1,000 in 2021 at 860th and reached 517th in 2025, so it is genuinely rising rather than established. Parents who want the meadow feeling of Willow or Ivy without the crowding tend to land here.
11. Coral
This Latin name comes from corallium and names the reef-building animal rather than a plant.
Its floral claim runs through color and through borrowed names: coral bells and coral vine both take their names from the same shade. Coral held a steady place in the American top 1,000 through the late 1800s, peaking near 486th in 1888, then charted only in scattered years and last appeared in 1992 at 982nd. It has been off the list ever since, so it comes with no class-list traffic at all today.
12. Dahlia
Dahlia honors Anders Dahl, the Swedish botanist the flower was named for in 1791, two years after he died.
The genus is native to Mexico and Central America and holds only 42 accepted species, yet gardeners have registered more than 57,000 cultivars from them (1). Few flowers have been bred so far past their starting point. The name itself sat at 215th for American girls in 2025. That is close enough to Delilah and Amelia in sound to feel current, and far enough from both to stand apart.
13. Daisy
Daisy is an English girl’s name from the Old English for day’s eye, because the flower opens at dawn and closes at dusk.
Its staying power is remarkable. Daisy has appeared in the American top 1,000 every single year since 1900, peaked near 48th around 1880, and reached 75th in 2025, which is the highest it has ranked in decades. Katy Perry naming her daughter Daisy in 2020 helped, but the name was climbing before that. It is the rare flower pick that is both classic and currently fashionable.
14. Flora
Flora is Latin for flower, and in Roman religion she was the goddess of flowering plants and of spring, honored each year at the Floralia.
If you want a name that means flower outright rather than naming one particular bloom, this is the shortest route to it. Flora sounds vintage in the best way, sitting near Nora, Cora, and Vera, and it has the advantage of needing no explanation in almost any European language.
15. Florentina
Florentina is a Latin name meaning blooming, built on the same root as Flora and Florence.
The iris florentina backs it up with pale white petals and a root once dried for orris, the violet-scented fixative used in perfume. Five syllables is a commitment, but the shortcuts are generous: Flora, Tina, Rennie, or Flo all fall out of it naturally, so your daughter can choose how formal she wants to be.
16. Freesia
Freesia honors Friedrich Heinrich Theodor Freese, a German physician, after the botanist Christian Friedrich Ecklon named the genus in his memory in 1866.
The plant is native to southern Africa, with most species growing in the Cape Provinces, and it earned its place in the florist trade on scent alone. Freesias carry a clean peppery sweetness that survives being cut, which is why they turn up in so many wedding bouquets. As a name it is soft, unusual, and shortens to Free or Zee.
17. Ginger
Ginger began as an English nickname for red hair and carries a sense of liveliness and pep.
The plant is a tropical rhizome whose relatives, the ginger lilies, flower in tall fragrant spikes. Humans have used it for thousands of years for flavor and as a folk remedy for nausea, and the name carries the same warmth, with Virginia waiting as a formal partner if you want something longer on the birth certificate.
18. Harmony
Harmony comes from the Latin for concord or unity, and it does exactly what it says.
Its floral tie is a dwarf iris cultivar called Harmony, which tops out near five inches tall in a deep blue-violet that gardeners plant in drifts for early spring color. Small, early, and unmissable is a fair description of a newborn too, and the name manages to be instantly understood while still feeling like a choice rather than a default.
19. Hazel
Hazel is Old English for the hazel tree, whose catkins are among the first things to flower after winter.
The comeback has been dramatic. Hazel ranked 33rd for American girls in 2019, 19th in 2024, and 21st in 2025, which means it has settled inside the top 25 rather than spiking and falling. Expect your daughter to meet other Hazels. Many parents decide that is a fair trade for a name this warm and this easy to say.
20. Heather
Heather is a plant name rather than a word meaning flower, whatever some name lists claim. It comes from the early 14th century hathir, a Scottish and northern English dialect name for Calluna vulgaris, possibly Celtic in origin.
Its American arc is one of the steepest on record. Heather peaked around third for girls in 1975, carried by Heather Locklear and Heather Thomas through the following decade, then fell away completely and last appeared in the top 1,000 in 2016 at 975th. It is absent now, which is precisely what makes it available again.
21. Holly
Holly is Old English for the holly tree, the December birth flower and the reason the name reads as Christmas to most English speakers.
The plant is known for its berries rather than its blooms, though it does carry small white flowers before the fruit sets. Holly peaked at 48th for American girls in 1983 and stood at 416th in 2025. That is the comfortable zone where a name is recognized without being repeated. A winter due date makes the choice almost too easy.
22. Hyacinth
Hyacinth comes from the Greek hyakinthos, and the myth behind it is a sad one. The flower was said to have sprung from the blood of Hyakinthos, a Laconian youth loved by Apollo and killed by accident with a discus, and the Greeks claimed its petals carried their written cry of grief.
Modern hyacinths are grown for a scent strong enough to fill a room from one pot. The name has never caught on in the United States, so it stays firmly in unusual territory, with Cynthia-adjacent nicknames like Cyn and Hy available if the full version feels heavy.
23. Ione
In Greek, Ione means violet or purple flower. The Gaelic and Celtic meaning is different, pointing to the king’s island.
The name does a lot of work for three letters and two syllables. Ione is a sea nymph in Greek myth, a genus of orchid, and a town in both California and Oregon. Actress Ione Skye carried it through the 1980s in Say Anything. Say it eye-OH-nee and it sounds like nothing else on a class list.
24. Iris
Of Greek origin, the name Iris means rainbow, after the goddess who carried messages between the gods along one.
The flower took the name for the same reason: irises bloom in nearly every color there is. Comic readers know Iris West from The Flash. The name has been rising steadily for real children too, from 128th for American girls in 2019 to 61st in 2025. Four letters, one clean syllable, and no spelling questions ever.
25. Ivy
Ivy is an English name meaning faithfulness, drawn from the plant’s habit of holding on.
Ivy climbs using tiny root-like hairs that grip brick, bark, and stone, which is how it ends up covering the side of a house without any help. The name has climbed almost as reliably: 67th for American girls in 2019, 36th in 2024, and 39th in 2025. It is short, it pairs with almost any surname, and it has stayed popular long enough now to look like a keeper rather than a trend.
26. Ixia
This South African name, said IK-see-uh, comes from the flower, a cormous plant of the Cape whose star-shaped blooms open on wiry stems, though some sources trace the word to a Greek term for a thistle-like plant.
Ixia sounds engineered rather than botanical, which is exactly its appeal for parents chasing something modern and sharp. It has never charted in the United States, so if you like Nixie, Pixie, or Dixie but want a real plant behind the sound, this is the grown-up version.
27. Jacinta
Of Spanish origin, Jacinta, said hah-SEEN-tah, is the feminine form of Jacinto and means hyacinth, so it carries the whole Apollo myth in a much friendlier package.
It is well used across Spain, Portugal, and Latin America but has never taken hold in the United States, which makes it a strong option for families who want a name that works in two languages without sounding translated. Jaci and Cinta are both easy shortenings.
28. Jasmine
Jasmine comes from the Persian yasmin, the name of the flower itself, and it also turns up on lists of names that mean gift from God.
The flower is small, white, and famously nocturnal in its scent, which is why perfumers pick it at night. The name peaked at 23rd for American girls in 1993 and 1994, just after Disney’s Aladdin. By 2025 it had settled back to 206th. That drop is good news if you always loved the name but never the crowd that came with it.
29. Jewel
Coming from Old French, Jewel means delight or plaything, from the same root that gives us jocular.
The floral tie is a crabapple: the red jewel flowering crab carries white blossom in spring and small red fruit into winter. Singer and actress Jewel Kilcher is still the name’s best-known bearer. Worth knowing before you commit: Jewel last appeared in the American top 1,000 in 2019 at 971st and has not charted since, so it is rarer now than most parents assume.
30. Julia
Julia has roots in Latin and means downy or youthful, from the Roman family name Julius.
Its rose is a good one. The Julia Child rose blooms in a soft butter gold, and Child chose that variety herself before it was given her name. The human Julias have kept the name in circulation without ever letting it spike: Roberts, Stiles, and Louis-Dreyfus among them. It is the definition of a safe pick that still sounds like a decision.
31. Kahili
This Hawaiian name, said kah-HEE-lee, means feather and refers to the feathered standards carried before Hawaiian royalty.
Kahili ginger takes its name from the same image. Its very fragrant pale yellow and red flowers stand in dense spikes above the leaves in late summer, and the long red stamens are what earn the feather comparison. One caution is worth knowing. The plant is native to the Himalayas rather than Hawaii, and the IUCN lists it among 100 of the world’s worst invasive species for how hard it has spread through Hawaiian and New Zealand forest. None of that touches the name, which stays lovely either way.
32. Kalina
This Slavic name, said kah-LEE-nah, means flower, and in Polish and Bulgarian it names the guelder rose specifically, a shrub that carries flat white flower heads and bright red autumn berries.
A name that means flower in general rather than one particular bloom leaves your daughter free to pick her own favorite later. Kalina also has the practical advantage of being pronounceable on sight in English while staying clearly Slavic, and Lina works as a nickname in either language.
33. Katy
In Irish, Katy comes from the Gaelic name Caitlin and means pure, tracing back through Greek katharos to the same idea.
Flaming Katy is the florist’s name for kalanchoe, a thick-leaved succulent that flowers in tight clusters through winter and early spring when almost nothing else in the house is blooming. A flower that shows up in January suits a name this bright. Katy is also the friendliest possible way to get to Katherine without ever using it.
34. Latica
Latica means petal in Croatian and in Albanian, which makes it one of the few names on this list that names the part rather than the whole flower.
It is genuinely rare as a first name anywhere outside the Balkans and has never charted in the United States. The sound is soft and unfussy, close enough to Latisha and Leticia to be readable at a glance, it gives Lottie and Tica as nicknames, and for parents with Croatian roots it does real family work.
35. Laurel
Coming from Latin laurus by way of Old French, Laurel means laurel tree, the plant Greek and Roman victors wore as a wreath.
Mountain laurel is the showiest plant carrying the laurel name, a Kalmia rather than a true laurel, growing from southern Maine down to northern Florida and serving as the state flower of both Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Its blooms are small mechanical marvels. The stamens bend back under tension and fling pollen up to 15 centimeters the moment an insect lands. Laurel itself sat at 734th for American girls in 2025, quietly present rather than fashionable.
36. Lavender
Lavender may come from the Latin livere, meaning bluish, or from a French root tied to washing, since the flowers were used to scent laundry and bathwater.
The plant is grown as much for its oil as its color, and it turns up in sleep aids, soaps, and baking. As a name it is brand new to the charts: Lavender entered the American top 1,000 for the first and so far only time in 2024, at 990th. That makes it one of the freshest options here, with Lavvy and Vee as the obvious short forms.
37. Leilani
Of Hawaiian origin, Leilani joins lei and lani to mean heavenly lei or royal child of heaven.
A lei is given rather than bought for oneself, offered as a token of affection at arrivals, departures, graduations, and weddings, so the name carries the idea of something freely given. That is a generous thing to hand a child. Leilani has become well established on the mainland too, which means it now reads as familiar rather than borrowed.
38. Lilac
This Persian name traces back through nylac and means lilac or bluish.
The common lilac is native to the southern Balkans and reached the American colonies in the 18th century, where it settled in beside farmhouses and never left. It flowers in early summer, just ahead of most roses, and the bloom window is famously short, which is a large part of why people wait for it. Lilac is rarer as a name than Lily or Violet, so it gives you the same floral register without the company.
39. Lily
Lily comes straight from the Latin lilium and names the flower with no detour.
It is the most used name on this entire list. Lily ranked 34th for American girls in 2019, 24th in 2024, and 18th in 2025, which means it is still climbing after decades in the top 50. Actresses Lily Collins and Lily Tomlin and singer Lily Allen have kept it visible. If you want a flower name that will never need explaining, this is it, though your daughter will likely share it.
40. Magnolia
Of French origin, Magnolia honors the botanist Pierre Magnol, with the name first published by Charles Plumier in 1703.
The plant is far older than the man. Fossils of the magnolia family date back 95 million years, and because magnolias appeared before bees existed, they are thought to have evolved for beetle pollination, which is why the flowers are so tough and cup-shaped (2). The name charted in America as early as 1880 at 628th, faded for most of a century, and came back to 124th in 2025. Maggie and Nola are both waiting inside it.
41. Meadow
Meadow is an English word name for a piece of grassland, usually one left to flower rather than grazed short.
Why settle for one bloom when the name gives you a whole field of them? Parents have been asking that more and more often. Meadow went from 512th for American girls in 2018 to 286th in 2025, a steady climb with no celebrity spike behind it. It sits naturally beside Willow, River, and Wren for families drawn to nature names that are not literally plants.
42. Nanala
Nanala is Hawaiian for sunflower, and it has the same open, unhurried sound as most Hawaiian names.
Sunflowers track the sun across the sky as they grow, which is a nice thing to name a child after. Nanala has never charted in the United States, so it arrives without associations, Nana and Lala both work as household nicknames, and for families with Hawaiian ties it is a gentler alternative to the far better known Leilani.
43. Olearia
Olearia does not carry a separate meaning. It is simply the genus name for the daisy bushes of Australia and New Zealand, shrubs that cover themselves in small white daisy-like flowers.
Almost nobody uses it as a first name, which is the entire point for parents who are tired of hearing their favorite name in the park. It has an airy, invented-sounding quality despite being perfectly real, and Ollie and Ria give you two very different everyday options.
44. Poppy
Poppy comes from the late Old English popig, itself from the Latin papaver.
The name has been a fixture in Britain for years and has been catching up in the United States, climbing from 492nd for American girls in 2019 to 292nd in 2025. California poppies were traditionally used as a mild sedative, which is a fitting note for a name this soft. Poppy is cheerful without being sugary, and it stands on its own rather than needing a longer formal version.
45. Posey
Posey is an English name for a small bunch of flowers, the kind handed over at a recital or tucked into a buttonhole.
It has never taken off in the United States as a given name, though it is scattered across the map as a place name in Illinois, Texas, West Virginia, and Indiana. That gives it an old-fashioned Americana feel without being tied to anyone famous, and it makes an unusually charming middle name if the first name you have chosen is a serious one.
46. Rose
Rose is a Late Latin name from rosa, and it is the flower name every other flower name is measured against.
Its stability is the story. Rose ranked 114th for American girls in both 2024 and 2025 and has not left the 110 to 125 band since 2019, which is about as steady as a name gets. If the plain version feels too spare, Rosalie, Rosaria, Rosalina, and Rosina all give you more to work with while keeping the same root. Every one of them shortens back to Rose anyway.
47. Veronica
Coming from Latin and Greek, the name Veronica means victory bringer, though it is often linked to the phrase vera icon, or true image.
Veronica is also a genus of flowering plants, the speedwells, which carry small blue spires in early summer and grow almost anywhere they are put. On the fiction side the name has range, covering Veronica Mars and Veronica Lodge in the same breath. Ronnie, Nica, and Vera all live inside it, so your daughter has choices.
48. Violet
Simply meaning purple, the name Violet comes from Latin origin, through the diminutive viola.
No flower name on this list has risen further. Violet stood at 369th for American girls in 2005, the year Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck used it for their daughter, and reached 13th in 2025. That is a climb of more than 350 places in two decades. It is now a top-15 name, so choose it for the sound and the color rather than for rarity.
49. Wisteria
Wisteria was named in 1819 by the English botanist Thomas Nuttall, who chose it to honor the American anatomist Caspar Wistar of Philadelphia. The spelling drifted by one letter along the way and never drifted back.
The vines live and grow on a scale that suits the name. The largest known wisteria, planted in Sierra Madre, California in 1894, now spreads over an acre and weighs an estimated 250 tons (3). Wisteria is a long name for a small person, but it is also a real commitment to a real thing, and Wisty and Ria are both easy landing spots.
50. Zinnia
Zinnia is a German surname rather than a Latin word. Linnaeus coined the botanical name for Johann Gottfried Zinn, the German botanist who died in 1759 at just thirty.
Zinnias themselves are the most forgiving flower in the summer garden, growing from seed sown straight into the ground and blooming harder the more you cut them. The name is still genuinely uncommon in the United States, which is the appeal for parents who want their daughter’s name to be hers alone. Zin, Zee, and Nia all come free with it.
50 Flower Names for Boys
Flower names for boys usually work sideways: a rose variety, a thorned shrub, a garden structure, or the man a bloom was named for. All 50 below have a real floral link.
51. Arbor
Arbor is a Latin word name meaning tree, and it also names the garden frame that roses and clematis are trained over.
That is the angle for parents who want a floral tie without a floral name: an arbor holds the flowers up rather than being one. It has never charted in the United States, it shares its sound with Arthur and Harbor without copying either, and Arbor Day gives it a ready-made explanation for anyone who asks.
52. Aster
Aster means star, from the Greek, and the flower earned it with petals that radiate out from a yellow center.
Asters bloom in late summer and hold on into autumn, long after most borders have finished, which makes the name a good fit for a baby due in September or October. It works for a boy or a girl equally well. There is no American popularity data on record for Aster at all, in either direction. A name that has never once reached the top 1,000 is about as uncrowded as they come.
53. Austin
This Latin name is a medieval contraction of Augustine and means majestic or magnificent.
Its flower link runs through one man. David Austin bred more than 200 rose varieties in Shropshire, crossing old garden roses with modern ones to get the scent of the former and the repeat flowering of the latter, and English roses are named for him worldwide. If you want your son’s name to point at craftsmanship rather than a bloom, Austin does it quietly.
54. Azami
Azami is Japanese for thistle flower, written with a character that carries the plant’s prickly reputation intact.
In Japan it is used mainly for girls, but the hard consonants give it enough edge to work for a boy in English, and it sits close to the Arabic Azmi, meaning purposeful or determined. Three syllables, no silent letters, no spelling arguments, and Zami is there if you ever want something shorter.
55. Blaze
Blaze comes from the Latin blaesus by way of Blaise and originally meant lisping, which is an unglamorous root for such a bold-sounding name.
The flower connection is the Blaze rose, a red climber that has been covering American fences since the 1930s. As a name it has been quietly durable. Blaze has appeared in the American top 1,000 every year since 2000, when it entered at 880th, and stood at 781st in 2025. That is rare without being unheard of, a hard balance to strike in a name this loud.
56. Bourbon
Bourbon comes from the House of Bourbon, the French royal dynasty that also gave its name to a region, a whiskey, and a biscuit.
The Bourbon rose belongs on that list too. It arose on the Ile Bourbon in the Indian Ocean as a cross between a China rose and a damask, and it gave Victorian gardeners repeat-flowering shrubs with old-rose scent. Nobody hearing this name will guess it is a tribute to a flower, which may be exactly why it works better as a middle name than a first.
57. Briar
This English boy’s name means a thorned shrub, most often a wild rose.
It has been climbing on both sides of the ledger. Briar ranked 882nd for American boys in 2017 and 686th in 2025, while for girls it reached 400th in the same year, so it is genuinely used across the board. Sleeping Beauty’s given name is Briar Rose, which some parents love and others would rather not explain. Either way it is thorny, short, and easy to say.
58. Bryony
Bryony comes from a Greek root meaning to swell or sprout, and it names a fast-climbing vine that hauls itself over hedges in a single season.
The name is far more common for girls in Britain than for boys anywhere, so using it for a son is a deliberate choice rather than a neutral one. It does give you a way to echo a Brian or a Bryan in the family without duplicating the name outright, and Bry is the natural shortening.
59. Calix
Calix comes from Greek and is given the sense of very handsome in the naming tradition, though the identical botanical term, calyx, is the ring of sepals that wraps a flower bud before it opens.
That double reading is the appeal: a protective outer layer and a compliment in the same four letters. The name has not caught on in the United States, so your son would almost certainly be the only one. It makes a sharper alternative to Felix if that has become too familiar.
60. Chicory
Chicory is an English plant name, taken from the Greek kikhorion by way of Latin and French.
The plant is a daisy-family perennial like the dandelion, but it flowers a clear sky blue rather than yellow, opening in the morning and closing by afternoon along roadsides through late summer. Its leaves go into salads and its roasted root goes into coffee, most famously in New Orleans. As a name it is unusual to the point of bold. Cory gives you an ordinary day-to-day version to fall back on.
61. Coho
This Native American name comes from Halkomelem, a Salishan language of the Pacific Northwest, and names the silver salmon that runs those rivers.
Coho is also a Japanese iris, a pale pink variety grown in wet ground at pond edges. Between the fish and the flower it is a name rooted firmly in water. Two clean syllables, no ambiguity in the spelling, and nothing else on a class list will sound remotely like it.
62. Cosmos
The Greek kosmos means order and, by extension, beauty and the universe itself, on the idea that the world is an ordered whole.
The flower earned the name from Spanish priests in Mexico who saw evenly spaced petals and thought of that same orderliness. Cosmos are drought-tolerant, self-seeding, and happiest in poor soil, which makes them the easiest annual most gardeners ever grow. The name suits a family with an eye on the sky, and Cosmo drops the final letter if the plural bothers you.
63. David
Derived from the Hebrew dod, David means beloved or uncle.
David garden phlox is a white summer cultivar prized for shrugging off the mildew that flattens most phlox, and it was named after the husband of the woman who developed it. The name itself has proved similarly hardy. David ranked 27th for American boys in 2019 and 35th in 2025, drifting gently rather than falling, after decades near the top. It is the safest pick on this half of the list.
64. Dietes
Dietes joins two Greek words, di for two and etes for associate, a reference to the genus sitting between iris and moraea.
Dietes robinsoniana, the Wedding Lily, grows wild only on Lord Howe Island off the Australian coast and nowhere else on earth. Its white flowers last a single day each. A name that points to one small island and one short-lived bloom is a quiet kind of choice, and Dee works as the everyday form.
65. Filbert
Of Old German origin, Filbert means very bright, and it reached English through Saint Philibert, whose August feast day falls when the nuts ripen.
Hazelnuts are still sold as filberts in much of the United States for that reason. The shrubs flower early, hanging out long yellow catkins in late winter before any leaves appear. Filbert is undeniably an eccentric choice, but it gives you Bert or Phil for the days your son wants to be ordinary.
66. Fiorello
Fiorello is Italian for little flower, the diminutive of fiore, and it is one of the few names on this list that says flower outright in a masculine form.
Its best-known bearer ran a city. Fiorello La Guardia was the 100th mayor of New York, in office from January 1934 to January 1946, which meant steering New York through the Depression and the Second World War (4). The airport carries his surname and the restaurant Cafe Fiorello carries the first. Fio and Rello both work as short forms.
67. Florian
Florian is a Latin name meaning flowering, from the ancient Roman name Florianus, built on the same root as Flora and Florence.
Saint Florian is the patron saint of Poland and of Upper Austria, and of firefighters besides, which gives the name a protective streak alongside the botanical one. It is well used across Germany, Austria, and France while remaining rare in the United States, so it travels better than most. Flo and Ian are the obvious shortenings, and they could not sound more different from each other.
68. Galanthus
Galanthus is ancient Greek for milk-white flower and is the botanical name for the snowdrop, the first thing to bloom in most gardens each year.
In Ovid’s telling, Galanthis was a servant turned into a weasel by an angry goddess for outwitting her, though the spelling differs by a letter. Snowdrops push through frozen ground and flower while the snow is still down, which is a fair image for a winter baby. Full it is a lot of name, so most people would land on Gal or Lanth in practice.
69. Garance
Garance is the French word for madder, the plant whose root yields a deep red dye that colored European military uniforms for centuries.
French cinema attached it to a woman: Garance is the heroine of Les Enfants du Paradis. That makes it a feminine name in France, so using it for a boy in English is a genuine departure rather than a neutral choice. Gary sits inside it as a nickname, which may be the easiest way to make it land.
70. George
George is an old name from the Greek georgos, meaning farmer or earth-worker, which is about as floral a root as a boys’ name can have.
King George is a named aster with violet-blue petals and a gold eye, flowering into October when the borders have otherwise given up. The name has never truly gone away either. George stood at 126th for American boys in 2025, helped along in recent years by the young British prince. Saint George and the dragon comes with it for free.
71. Gordon
This Scottish name means great hill and began as the name of a place in Berwickshire before it was a clan or a person.
Gordon is also a reticulata iris, a dwarf bulb that flowers in February in pale blue with a gold blaze on each fall. The human Gordons are a varied bunch: chef Gordon Ramsay, singer Gordon Lightfoot, and Sting, who was born Gordon Sumner. The name is due a revival and has not had one yet, which is the moment to take it.
72. Graham
The name Graham comes from Old English and means gravel homestead or grey home, originally the Lincolnshire place name Grantham.
Graham Thomas is one of the most recognizable English roses there is, a warm yellow introduced in 1983 and named for the horticulturist who spent his career rescuing old rose varieties from disappearing. Naming a son after the man who saved the roses is a better story than naming him after a rose. Graham also happens to be one of the few names here that is equally at home in Britain and America.
73. Hamilton
Hamilton is an Old English place name joining hamel, meaning crooked or blunted, and dun, meaning hill.
Lady Emma Hamilton is an English rose with tangerine-orange blooms and a strong fruity scent, one of the more distinctive colors in the David Austin range. The name now carries a Broadway association that will follow any child born this decade, for better or worse. Hamish, Ham, and Milt are all in there, though most families settle on Ham.
74. Hardy
Hardy is an English and French name meaning bold or brave, from the same root as hardi.
Gardeners use the word constantly in another sense: a hardy plant is one that survives the winter where you live, and every seed packet is stamped with the zones it will take. Naming a boy Hardy is a nod to that quiet toughness rather than to any single bloom. It works as a first name or as a softer alternative to Harding or Harding-adjacent surnames.
75. Hawthorn
Hawthorn, sometimes spelled Hawthorne, is an English name for someone who lived where the hawthorn hedges grow.
The tree carries dense white or pink blossom in May, which is why it is also called the May-tree, and its leaves, flowers, and berries have all been used in teas, preserves, and traditional heart remedies. It is a hedge plant, a boundary marker, and a folklore fixture all at once. The Hawthorne spelling brings Nathaniel with it if you want the literary version. Either way it is a name that sounds like open country.
76. Heath
Heath is an Old English name for someone living on a moor or heath, the open acid ground where low shrubs grow and little else will.
It is the masculine counterpart to Heather, and both plants sit in the family Ericaceae. Heath Ledger gave the name its modern weight before his death in 2008. One syllable, five letters, no nickname required, and it pairs cleanly with almost any longer surname.
77. Holland
Holland is an Old English place name from hoh, a ridge or spur of land, and land, though most people hear the Dutch region first.
That is fair enough, because the Netherlands built the modern flower trade: the Dutch bulb fields and the Aalsmeer flower auction still set prices for cut flowers across much of the world. There are also petite de Hollande roses, a small pink Provence variety from the 18th century. A great unisex name, Holland reads as a surname-style pick rather than a country to most American ears.
78. Indigo
Indigo is an English color word meaning deep blue-violet, taken from the Greek indikon, the dye from India.
Several plants carry it as a name outright, including blue wild indigo, a prairie native with tall blue spires and black seed pods that rattle in autumn. Celebrities including Lou Diamond Phillips and Rider Strong have used the name for their children. Behind the Name records it at 853rd for American girls in 2025 with no boys’ ranking, so on a son it is still an unusual choice.
79. Isaac
This Hebrew name means he will laugh, from Sarah’s reaction to being told she would have a child.
Madame Isaac Pereire is a Bourbon rose from 1881 with enormous deep pink flowers and one of the strongest scents of any rose in cultivation, which is a lot to carry on one name. Isaac Newton and Isaac Asimov cover the rest of the ground. The name has eased from 34th for American boys in 2018 and 2019 to 47th in 2025. It stays popular without ever feeling crowded.
80. James
This biblical name comes through the Latin Iacomus from Jacob, and is usually given the sense of supplanter or held by the heel.
James Backhouse is a lavender-blue phlox named for the Quaker nurseryman and missionary whose family ran one of England’s great nurseries in York. The name has outlasted every trend that has come near it. James ranked 6th for American boys in 2025, exactly where it sat in 2019. Six centuries in, it is still a top-10 name.
81. Johnny
Johnny is the English pet form of John, which comes from the Hebrew for God is gracious.
Johnny Jump Up is the common name for the wild heartsease viola, a small purple, yellow, and cream flower that seeds itself into paths and gravel and refuses to be planted where you actually want it. The contrast between that delicate bloom and a name this plainspoken is the whole appeal. Johnny also gives you John, Jack, or Jonathan as a formal fallback.
82. Kamal
Kamal is an Arabic name meaning perfection, and in Sanskrit the same spelling means lotus.
Brahma kamal is a night-flowering Himalayan plant, opening large white blooms at high altitude after dark, and it has long been used in traditional medicine in the region. The double origin makes Kamal unusually portable across cultures, and the pronunciation is stable in both. Two syllables, five letters, and no version of it is hard to say.
83. Liko
This Hawaiian name means leaf bud, the point at which new growth first breaks from a stem.
Naming a newborn after the very start of something is a neat piece of symbolism, and it is a gentler idea than most nature names manage. Liko is short, ends on a vowel like most Hawaiian names, is easy for English speakers to pronounce on sight, and shortens to Lee if it ever needs to.
84. Lono
Lono is the Hawaiian god of agriculture, rainfall, peace, and music, honored during the Makahiki season when war was set aside and harvests were gathered.
That is not a flower connection so much as the condition every flower depends on, since nothing blooms without rain. The Makahiki association gives the name a peaceful cast that suits a first child, and Lono is rare enough outside Hawaii that it has never charted on the mainland.
85. Manuka
Manuka is a Maori word, not an American one, and it names Leptospermum scoparium, a New Zealand scrub bush also called tea-tree.
The plant carries aromatic prickly leaves and masses of small white, pink, or red flowers, and bees working those flowers produce manuka honey. In Maori the word also names a manuka stick used as a fishing rod, and the challenge stick laid down in formal ceremony. A name that means both a flowering shrub and a challenge issued is a fair thing to hand a son.
86. Oleander
This Greek name is usually given the sense of evergreen tree, and the plant behind it is one of the toughest ornamental shrubs there is.
Oleander shrugs off poor soil, hard heat, salt spray, and long drought, and flowers white, pink, or red with a deeply fringed five-lobed corolla. It is also seriously poisonous, containing cardiac glycosides in every part. That is worth knowing if you are going to have a garden as well as a baby. If Oliver has grown too common, Oleander gets you Ollie, Lee, or Ander from a much rarer starting point.
87. Orient
Orient comes from the Latin oriens, meaning rising, as in the direction the sun rises from.
Oriental lilies are the reason it belongs on a flower list: huge, heavily scented, and late to bloom, they are the ones that perfume an entire room from a single stem. As a first name Orient is genuinely rare and reads as adventurous rather than dated, and it works especially well in the middle slot, where an unusual word name has room to breathe.
88. Perry
Perry is either an English name for someone living near a pear tree, from the Old English pirige, or a Latin-rooted name meaning traveler, depending on which line you follow.
Perry’s Blue is a classic Siberian iris, a tall pale blue variety bred in England and still widely grown a century later. The name has a friendly, unpretentious quality that has survived several eras, and it works as a standalone or as a short form of Peregrine if you want something grander on paper.
89. Porter
Porter was an Old French occupational name for a doorkeeper or gatekeeper, from porte, a door.
Eileen Porter is a named heather, a compact winter-flowering variety that carries deep pink bells when the rest of the garden is bare. Porter as a first name has never been in heavy demand in the United States, which suits parents who want a surname-style name that has not been used up. It also sidesteps the spelling problems that trip up many two-syllable boys’ names.
90. Potter
Potter traces to English, German, and Dutch origin and named a maker of storage and drinking vessels.
Beatrix Potter is an English rose with pale pink rosettes, named for the author who was a serious mycologist long before she wrote about rabbits. The Harry Potter association is unavoidable and will be the first thing anyone says. If that does not bother you, Potter is a sturdy, workmanlike name that almost nobody uses as a first.
91. Rambler
The origin of Rambler is not settled. It can mean someone who talks at length, someone who walks the countryside for pleasure, or a class of climbing rose.
Rambler roses are the ones that swallow a shed. They flower once, hard, in early summer, and put on enough growth in a season to reach the top of a mature tree, which is why gardeners plant them where nothing else will cover. As a name it is offbeat and cheerful, and Ram gives you a blunt short form if the full version feels too whimsical.
92. Ren
Ren is a Japanese name written with the character for lotus, the water lily that roots in mud and flowers clean above it.
That image carries real weight in Buddhist tradition, where the lotus stands for rising unstained from difficult ground. Ren can also be read as love with a different character. It is one of the most popular boys’ names in Japan and almost unknown in the United States, so it is short, current, and unclaimed here. Three letters, one syllable, nothing to spell out.
93. Rhodes
Rhodes comes from Old English and means a clearing in the woods, though the Greek island of Rhodes takes its name from rhodon, the rose.
The island put a rose on its coins for centuries, which is about as literal a flower connection as a place name gets. In English the name reads as a confident surname-style pick, and the Rhodes Scholarship adds an association with study at Oxford that some parents like and others would rather avoid. Rhodes needs no nickname, which is part of its appeal.
94. Sage
Of Latin origin, Sage means both the healing herb, from salvia, and a wise person, from sapius. The two meanings arrived separately and landed on the same word.
Common sage flowers in purple-blue spikes that bees work all summer, and the ornamental salvias are among the longest-flowering plants you can grow. As a name it leans female in America, ranking 160th for girls and 455th for boys in 2025. On a son that makes it distinctive without being strange.
95. Shade
Shade is an American word name meaning in the shadow or out of the sun, and it works equally well for a boy or a girl.
It can also read as a short form of nightshade, the family that includes both the poisonous belladonna and the entirely edible tomato and potato. Gardeners think about shade constantly, since half of what you can grow depends on how much of it you have, and the name itself is stark, single-syllable, and unlike anything else likely to turn up on a class list.
96. Thistle
From Middle English, Thistle was a topographic surname for someone who lived where thistles grew.
The plant is Scotland’s national emblem and has been since the reign of King Alexander III in the 1200s, and the Order of the Thistle remains Scotland’s oldest and highest order of chivalry. Legend has it a barefoot Norse raider stepped on one and gave the alarm away. For a family with Scottish roots it is a name with genuine history behind it rather than a borrowed one. Thistle also has the rare quality of being soft to say and sharp to picture.
97. Thorn
This English and Danish name described someone living beside a thorn bush or hedge, and in Old English thorn was also the name of a letter.
Every rose comes with them, so a thorn name is arguably the most honest floral choice on this list. Thorn is blunt and a little severe, which is the point, and it doubles as a short form of Thornton if you want more on the certificate. Your son will probably work out the thorn-in-my-side joke before you do.
98. Torch
Torch comes from the Old French torche, meaning a twisted thing, after the twisted tow that early torches were made from.
Spring Torch is a named heather that turns cream, pink, and red through the season, giving color in a garden bed all year rather than for a few weeks. As a name it belongs with the short, hard, elemental boys’ names that have been gaining ground, alongside Blaze and Ridge, bolder than most parents will want and unforgettable for the ones who choose it.
99. Valerian
This Slavic name is usually given the sense of strength, from the Latin valere, to be strong, and it was borne by a Roman emperor.
Valerian is also a flowering herb with clusters of small pink-white blooms, and its root has been used as a sleep remedy for centuries. A name that means strength and points at a plant used to help people rest is an unusual combination. Fans of Game of Thrones sometimes reach for the Valyrian spelling instead, though the plant version has the longer history and the easier explanation.
100. William
The name William, meaning resolute protector or strong helmet, has German, English, and French roots.
Sweet William is the flower half, a Dianthus native to southern Europe and parts of Asia that carries up to thirty flowers in each flat cluster, five serrated petals apiece, and a spicy clove scent. It appears in John Gerard’s garden catalogue as far back as 1596. Every explanation of which William it honors is unverified legend. The name itself has sat near the top of the American list for centuries, ranking 4th for boys in 2019 and 9th in 2025.
Flower Names FAQs
A Rose By Any Other Name
Flower names have stayed in use for centuries because they hand a child an image along with a sound, and almost every one of them comes with a story you can tell later.
Say your shortlist out loud against your last name and check how each one holds up on a form, in a classroom, and on a grown adult. Rose and Lily will always be understood. Celosia and Manuka will always need a sentence of explanation, which some children love and others would rather do without. Either way, your child will enjoy hearing how much thought went into it.
