Flower names have been given to babies for centuries and they never go out of style.
There is a reason for that. Flowers carry meaning in a way that most other things do not. Every culture on earth has attached significance to specific flowers. The rose means love. The lotus means enlightenment. The poppy means remembrance. The lily means purity. When you give your baby a flower name you are giving them something that already means something before they even open their eyes.
What I find fascinating is how far this category stretches. Most people think of Rose and Lily and Daisy and stop there. But there are hundreds of flowers in the world and dozens of languages that have turned those flowers into names. Once you start looking the list becomes almost endless.
Here are 201 unique floral baby names for girls and boys.
Classic Flower Names For Girls
These are the ones that have been on birth certificates for generations. Classic for a reason. They are beautiful, immediately recognizable, and they age perfectly. A Rose at seven and a Rose at seventy are both exactly right.
- Rose
- Lily
- Violet
- Daisy
- Iris — named after the Greek goddess of the rainbow. Every color at once in a single flower.
- Jasmine
- Poppy
- Primrose — the first rose. The flower that blooms before anything else in early spring.
- Lavender
- Flora — the Roman goddess of flowers herself. The name means flower in Latin.
- Fleur — flower in French. Clean, effortless, and completely lovely.
- Blossom
- Petal
- Camellia
- Magnolia
- Marigold
- Dahlia — named after the botanist Anders Dahl. Dark and dramatic for a flower name.
- Zinnia — named after the botanist Johann Zinn. One of the most vivid flowers in any garden.
- Petunia
- Pansy
- Heather
- Holly
- Ivy
- Fern
- Briar
- Laurel
- Hyacinth — in Greek mythology Hyacinthus was a beautiful youth loved by Apollo.
Rare And Unusual Flower Names For Girls
These are the names sitting just outside the mainstream. Some of them have never made it onto a top 1000 list. Others peaked a hundred years ago and are waiting to come back. All of them are real flowers and all of them are genuinely beautiful as names.
You will not hear most of these at the playground right now. That is the point.
- Wisteria — the climbing purple flower that covers old stone walls in spring.
- Clover
- Sorrel
- Tansy
- Yarrow
- Verbena
- Eglantine — the wild sweetbriar rose of English hedgerows. Used by Chaucer, almost nobody since.
- Saffron — the most expensive spice in the world comes from the crocus flower.
- Cassia — a spice tree with fragrant flowers. Ancient and Biblical.
- Calla — the calla lily. Clean and architectural as both a flower and a name.
- Acacia
- Azalea
- Begonia
- Calliope — connected to the flower calliopsis. Also the muse of epic poetry.
- Cerise — cherry blossom in French.
- Edelweiss — the alpine flower that grows only on high mountain slopes. Symbol of Switzerland and of pure love.
- Forsythia
- Freesia
- Gardenia
- Genista
- Gladiolus
- Jessamine — an old form of Jasmine. More unusual and just as beautiful.
- Leilani — heavenly flower in Hawaiian.
- Linnea — the twinflower. Named after Carl Linnaeus, the botanist who created modern plant classification.
- Lotus — the sacred flower of Buddhism and Hinduism. Grows in mud and blooms into something perfect.
- Myrtle
- Oleander
- Peony
- Posy — a small bunch of flowers. An old English word name of real charm.
Flower Names From Around The World For Girls
Every language has its own words for flowers and its own flowers that became names. This is where the list gets genuinely interesting. Names that most people in the US have never come across but are completely natural in their home countries.
- Sakura — cherry blossom in Japanese. The most beloved flower in Japan.
- Hana — flower in Japanese and Arabic both.
- Yuki — snow flower in Japanese.
- Mei — beautiful flower in Chinese.
- Leilani — heavenly flower in Hawaiian.
- Paloma — dove, but connected to the palm flower in Spanish tradition.
- Zahara — flower in Arabic and Hebrew. Also means brightness.
- Zahra — flower in Arabic. Widely used across the Arab world and East Africa.
- Niloufar — water lily in Persian and Uzbek.
- Shoshana — lily or rose in Hebrew. The original form of Susan.
- Susanna — comes from Shoshana. A lily has been hiding inside this name for centuries.
- Parveen — star flower in Persian.
- Gulnara — pomegranate flower in Turkic languages.
- Gulsanam — flower face in Uzbek.
- Blodeuedd — flower face in Welsh. Say it BLOD-eye-eth. The name of a woman made entirely from flowers in Welsh mythology.
- Nymphea — the water lily in Latin. The genus name of all water lilies.
- Ren — lotus in Japanese.
- Amaryllis — a flowering bulb and also a name from pastoral Greek poetry.
- Anthea — flower in Greek. The name of a minor Greek goddess.
- Chrysanthe — golden flower in Greek. From the same root as chrysanthemum.
- Celandine — a yellow wildflower. Used by Tolkien for a hobbit character and real before that.
- Clematis
- Eliora — God is my light, but also connected to flower imagery in Hebrew tradition.
- Fiore — flower in Italian. Soft and completely beautiful.
- Flavia — golden flower in Latin.
- Fionnuala — fair shoulder in Irish but connected to the white flower of Irish legend.
- Kalinda — sun flower in Sanskrit.
- Kamala — lotus in Sanskrit. Also the name of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi.
Flower Names For Boys
Flower names for boys feel unexpected and that is exactly why they work right now. The surprise is the point. And historically flowers were not considered feminine at all. The great medieval knights wore flowers in their armor. The samurai decorated everything with cherry blossoms.
These names carry that same unapologetic beauty.
- Florian — from the Latin for flower. Saint Florian is the patron saint of Poland and firefighters.
- Jasper — connected to the jasper stone but also to the jasmine flower in some traditions.
- Basil — the herb with small white flowers. Also a saint name of enormous history.
- Crispin — from the Latin for curly, connected to curling petals.
- Leif — leaf in Scandinavian languages. Close enough to flower to belong here.
- Ash — the ash tree has small but distinctive flowers.
- Reed
- Rowan — the rowan tree produces clusters of small white flowers and bright red berries.
- Linden — the linden tree flowers fill entire streets with fragrance in early summer.
- Cedar
- Briar
- Sage — grey green herb with purple flowers.
- Heath — heather is one of the most distinctive flowering plants of the British Isles.
- Glen — not a flower name directly but deeply connected to where wildflowers grow.
- Peregrine — wanderer. Flowers follow the wandering bees that pollinate them.
- Oleander — dramatic, slightly dangerous, and extraordinary as a boy name.
- Narcissus — in Greek mythology a beautiful young man who gave his name to the flower.
- Hyacinthus — the original Greek form of Hyacinth. A young man in Greek myth beloved by Apollo.
- Crisanto — chrysanthemum in Spanish. Rare and striking.
- Fiorello — little flower in Italian. The name of the famous New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia.
- Bluma — flower in Yiddish. Carried by boys and girls in Ashkenazi Jewish tradition.
- Chrysanthos — golden flower in Greek. The masculine form of the chrysanthemum name.
- Florus — flowering in Latin. An early Roman historian and saint carried this name.
- Gentian — a mountain flower with intense blue color. Almost never used as a name.
- Lior — light or flower in Hebrew.
- Petalos — petal in Greek. Rare and completely unexpected.
- Rangi — sky and flower in Maori tradition.
Gender Neutral Flower Names
These names sit in the middle. No lean toward either side. Just a flower that belongs to any baby who needs it.
- Sage
- Briar
- Rowan
- Ash
- Reed
- Clover
- Bay — the bay laurel. Small aromatic leaves and tiny yellow flowers.
- Sorrel
- Yarrow
- Wren — not a flower but deeply nature connected and completely neutral.
- Indigo — the plant that produces the deep blue dye. Also a color name.
- Blossom
- Petal
- Flora
- Fleur
- Jasmine
- Lotus
- Saffron
- Cedar
- Linden
- Meadow
- Bloom
- Pollen
- Seed
- Grove
- Thicket
- Wild
Romantic And Vintage Flower Names For Girls
These names feel like they belong in a Victorian novel or a cottage garden. Long, soft, and dripping with romance. A lot of them were common a hundred years ago and then disappeared. Which means your daughter could wear one of them and be the only person in her generation with that name.
- Rosalind — beautiful rose in Latin. Shakespeare gave it to one of his greatest heroines.
- Rosamund — horse protection in Old German, but also connected to rose in popular tradition.
- Rosaline
- Rosalba — white rose in Italian.
- Rosalie
- Rosemary — rose of the sea. Also the herb that smells like pine and memory.
- Primula — the Latin name for primrose. Rarer and more distinctive.
- Florinda
- Florentina — from Florence, the city whose name comes from the Latin for flower.
- Floribel — beautiful flower. As romantic as a name gets.
- Amarantha — unfading flower in Greek. A flower that blooms and never wilts.
- Anthemia
- Calantha — beautiful flower in Greek.
- Chrysanta
- Eglantine
- Flavia
- Floralia — the Roman festival of flowers. A name of celebration and spring.
- Gillyflower — an old English name for the carnation or wallflower. Medieval and completely forgotten.
- Heliotrope — a flower that turns to face the sun all day long.
- Iolanthe — violet flower in Greek. Made famous by the Gilbert and Sullivan opera.
- Lilac
- Lisianthus
- Mezereon
- Mimosa
- Narcissa — the feminine form of Narcissus. Connected to the daffodil.
- Peregrina
- Philomena — lover of strength but also connected to the nightingale who sings among flowers.
- Rhodanthe — rose flower in Greek.
- Tuberose — a fragrant white flower used in perfumery.
Exotic And International Flower Names
These come from languages and naming traditions that most baby name lists in the US never touch. Some of them are completely unpronounceable at first glance. All of them are real and all of them are extraordinary.
- Seren — star in Welsh. Connected to starflowers.
- Siofra — changeling or flower fairy in Irish.
- Calanthe — beautiful flower in Greek. Also a genus of orchid.
- Clematide
- Daphne — laurel tree in Greek. The nymph who was transformed into a laurel to escape Apollo.
- Delphinium — a tall blue flowering plant. From the Greek word for dolphin.
- Eranthis — spring flower in Greek. The winter aconite.
- Euphrasia — the herb eyebright. Its name means good cheer in Greek.
- Galanthus — snowdrop in Greek. The first flower to appear after winter.
- Gentiana
- Hamamelis — witch hazel. Blooms in the coldest months of winter.
- Helenium
- Hellebore — the Christmas rose. Blooms in winter when nothing else will.
- Hyoscyamus
- Iberis
- Kalanit — the red anemone. The national flower of Israel.
- Liatris
- Lunaria — the money plant. Its seed pods are round and silver like the moon.
- Matthiola — the stock flower. Named after the Italian botanist Pierandrea Mattioli.
- Meconopsis — the Himalayan blue poppy. The rarest and most beautiful poppy in existence.
- Mertensia — the Virginia bluebells. Named after the German botanist Franz Carl Mertens.
- Muscari — grape hyacinth. Clusters of tiny deep blue flowers.
- Myosotis — forget me not in Greek. Do not forget me. A name with a plea inside it.
- Nemesia
- Nigella — the love in a mist flower. Delicate and surrounded by a haze of fine leaves.
- Nymphaea — the water lily genus. All water lilies belong to this family.
- Oenothera — the evening primrose. Opens only at night.
- Phlox
- Scabiosa — the pincushion flower.
- Silene — the campion flower. Also the name of the companion of Dionysus in Greek mythology.
- Trillium — a three petaled woodland flower. Sacred to several Native American peoples.
- Verbascum — the mullein. A tall silver spired flower of open landscapes.
- Veronica — speedwell. A small blue flower that blooms across European meadows.
- Viola — the violet in Latin. Shakespeare named his smartest heroine Viola.
Wrapping Up
So there you have it. 201 unique floral baby names for girls and boys.
From the timeless warmth of Rose and Lily to the rare botanical beauty of Galanthus and Myosotis. From the romantic sweep of Rosalind and Floribel to the unexpected boldness of Oleander and Narcissus on a boy. From the Japanese delicacy of Sakura to the Welsh mythology of Blodeuedd.
Flowers have been naming people for as long as people have been naming things. Pick the one that already feels like your baby.
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