How popular is the baby name Passiflora in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Passiflora.

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Popularity of the baby name Passiflora


Posts that mention the name Passiflora

Rare flower name: Passiflora

passiflora, passion flower,

Yesterday’s post about the name Passion, plus the fact that I happen to love passion flowers (because they are so weirdly elaborate), made me wonder: Has anyone ever been given the first-middle combo “Passion Flower”? How about the name of the genus, passiflora?

Turns out the answer is “yes” to both questions, though I could only find a single trustworthy example of each in the records.

  • A female named Passion Flower Johnson was born in California in 1988.
  • A female named Passiflora Dadge was born in Lancashire, England, in 1896. (Her four older siblings were Lilian, Stephen, Rose and Violet.)

So how did the plant come to be called “passion flower” in the first place? It was named in the 17th century by Spanish Christian missionaries who saw the various components of the bloom as being symbolic of the Passion of Jesus (e.g., the corona filaments represented the crown of thorns).

I also happened to find a Mississippi man named Maypop Stewart on the 1880 U.S. Census. “Maypop” is the common name of a type of passion flower native to the southern U.S. He was an African-American man who’d been born in Alabama in 1820s, so it’s possible that he was a former slave who’d been named by a slaveowner.

P.S. Did you know that the word Passionate has appeared in the SSA’s baby name data before?

Sources: Passiflora – Wikipedia, Passion – Online Etymology Dictionary

Never-ranked flower names: Jonquil, Celosia, Lunaria

Tansy
Tansy

Looking for flower names that aren’t as run-of-the-mill as Lily, Daisy and Rose?

Here are some flower names — as well as a few other botanical names — that have never ranked among the top 1,000 baby names in the United States before.

  • Acacia
  • Acanthus
  • Alder
  • Alyxia
  • Amaryllis
  • Arbutus
  • Ardisia
  • Aster
  • Begonia
  • Betony
  • Betula
  • Birch
  • Bryony
  • Buttercup
  • Calla
  • Calluna
  • Camellia – The leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant are used to make tea.
  • Cassia
  • Cedar
  • Celosia (pronounced see-LOH-zhah, see-LOH-zhee-ah, and other ways)
  • Chrysanthemum
  • Daffodil
  • Dandelion
  • Disa – A genus in the orchid family named for Disa, the heroine in a Swedish legendary saga.
  • Garance
  • Geranium
  • Gloxinia
  • Honeysuckle
  • Hyacinth
  • Jonquil
  • Kalmia
  • Kerria
  • Laelia
  • Lehua
  • Lilac
  • Linnaea – The sole species (Linnaea borealis) in this genus is commonly known as the twinflower.
  • Lobelia
  • Lotus
  • Lunaria – A genus name meaning “moon-like” (which refers to the plants’ decorative seedpods).
  • Lupine
  • Maile (pronounced MY-leh) – A flowering vine native to Hawaii that is used for making leis.
  • Mistletoe
  • Nandina – The sole species (Nandina domestica) in this genus is commonly called “heavenly bamboo.”
  • Nigella
  • Nyssa
  • Orchid
  • Passiflora
  • Peony
  • Pine
  • Poplar
  • Primrose
  • Primula
  • Rhododendron
  • Senna
  • Serissa – The sole species (Serissa japonica) in this genus is one of the most common types of bonsai tree.
  • Sunflower
  • Tansy
  • Thistle
  • Vanda
  • Vernonia
  • Wisteria
  • Zinnia

In case you’re wondering, all of the words above have been used as human names. In fact, most have appeared in U.S. baby name data — just never in the top 1,000 (for either gender). The rest were found by doing records searches.

Which of these do you like most?

Sources: Wikipedia, FamilySearch.org, Flower Names: Beyond Rose and Lily, SSA

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

[Latest update: Feb. 2025]