Nature's Most Popular Names

For expecting parents, choosing a name for a new baby is a huge task - after all, the name chosen will be theirs for life. Names with a nature theme are hugely popular, and many of them are gender-neutral, which makes them all the more appealing for many parents.

But which names inspired by the natural world are the most popular? Our letterbox flower specialists looked at government data from 2000 onwards to see which names topped the list for the UK and the US.

The most common nature names for boys in the UK:

Rowan - 7788
Jared - 1896
Ash - 245
Basil - 238
Linden - 226
Florian - 213
Reed - 183
Ren - 174
Kale - 158
Bay - 130

Several of the most popular nature names for boys in the UK are tree-themed, with Rowan, Ash, Linden and Bay all in the top ten, while Jared, a popular name shared by actor and musician Jared Leto means ‘rose’.

The most common nature names for UK girls:

Lily - 56215
Poppy - 39555
Holly - 39427
Daisy - 36399
Jasmine - 26579
Willow - 13256
Rose - 12098
Ivy - 10538
Violet - 8391
Iris - 5989

In the UK, floral names such as Lily, Poppy and Daisy are incredibly popular, although the Willow tree does appear in the top 10, which has been popular for quite some time, with notable namesakes such as Willow Smith and, the character Willow Rosenberg from the popular 90’s show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The most common nature names for US boys:

Jared - 42911
Corey - 23594
Rowan - 22746
Reed - 13870
Sage - 7285
Kale - 4875
Aspen - 1291
Ash - 1227
Cedar - 1200
Linden - 1128

In the US, there are many more popular tree names, but the herb Sage also makes the top 10. Sylvester Stallone named his eldest son Sage, and it looks like it’s creeping into mainstream popularity!

The most common nature names for US girls:

Lily - 118858
Jasmine - 103210
Violet - 45851
Daisy - 38886
Hazel - 34300
Ivy - 29018
Willow - 28356
Veronica - 25716
Angelica - 25291
Leilani - 24666

US girls are also frequently given floral themed names, with Daisy, shared by Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley appearing in the top 10, amongst many other flowers such as Lily and Jasmine.

Most unusual nature names :

Methodology

The team at Flowercard used UK government data for boys names and girls names as well as US government data for baby names to find out how many babies were given nature-themed names.

We combined several lists of baby names to create our list of nature-related names. Common names where it is not commonly known that they have a link to nature were removed such as Wiliam and Anthony.