10 Never-ranked flower, tree and herb names

Looking for flower names that aren’t as run-of-the-mill as Lily, Daisy and Rose? Here are ten great botanical baby names that have never ranked in the U.S. top 1,000:

• Zinnia – Cute and quirky. Many people I talk to really like this name.
• Cedar – I see this name being used more and more often for both genders.
• Maile (MY-lee) – Hawaiian flowering vine commonly used for making leis.
• Bryony – The variant Briony was the name of the protagonist in Ian McEwan’s book Atonement.
• Camellia – Especially appropriate for tea-lovers, as tea is made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant.
• Poppy – Currently the 30th most popular baby name in England and Wales.
• Azalea – Very distinguished-sounding.
• Tansy – Said to be derived from a Late Latin word meaning “undying.”
• Acacia – A genus of thorny tress and shrubs. Reminds me of the name Alicia.
• Juniper – Bears a resemblance to Jennifer and shortens neatly to June.

There are other good, uncommon floral names (Jonquil, Betony, Saffron) out there as well, but I thought the 10 above would be the most appealing to today’s parents.

UPDATE, 1/5/14: Azalea and Juniper are no longer never-ranked names! Juniper entered the top 1,000 in 2011 and Azalea in 2012.

UPDATE, 4/24/18: Poppy has been demoted as well. It entered the top 1,000 in 2016.

Image: Adapted from Atlas roslin pl Wrotycz pospolity by Joanna Boisse under CC BY-SA 4.0.