Unusual baby name: Gloxinia

gloxinia

Just a few weeks after Adnil came up in Notes and Queries, another contributor wrote:

“The growing popularity of flower-names is noticeable: Marigold, Rosemary, Iris, Ivy, Primrose, Hazel, Heather and Gloxinia (given to a girl baby very recently).”

Gloxinia! Like Arbutus, a flower name that was totally new to me.

Apparently Gloxinia can refer to either the genus Gloxinia or to several specific flowers called Gloxinia (e.g., Florist’s gloxinia, Creeping gloxinia, Hardy gloxinia) that are not part of the genus.

The name Gloxinia was created in honor of 18th-century German physician and botanical writer Benjamin Peter Gloxin. So far I haven’t had any luck tracking down the etymology of the surname Gloxin (also spelled Glocksin).

Have you ever seen Gloxinia used as a personal name before? What do you think of it?

Source: “Curious Christian Names.” Notes and Queries 19 Mar. 1904: 236.

Image: Adapted from Gloxinia by abelard1005 under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

2 thoughts on “Unusual baby name: Gloxinia

  1. I kind of like the way it looks but can’t figure out how to pronunciated.. Glow-zinn-ee-uh? Glock-zee-nuh?

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