Lavender

Meaning of Lavender

Lavender, an English feminine given name ultimately rooted in the Latin lavandula—denoting the fragrant herb prized since antiquity for its cleansing and medicinal properties—entered the onomastic record as a vocabulary choice during the late nineteenth-century vogue for botanical appellations, and it has thereafter carried a constellation of serene associations: the pale violet hue that bears its name, the Victorian floriographic emblem of devotion, and, in more recent cultural memory, literary characters ranging from Roald Dahl’s gentle Miss Honey to J. K. Rowling’s Lavender Brown. In demographic terms, United States birth data reveal a pattern of quiet but persistent usage: intermittent registrations from the early 1960s onward gave way to a gradual, decade-long ascent beginning in the mid-2010s, culminating in 258 newborns and a national rank of 693 in 2024. This combination of historic botanical resonance, chromatic symbolism, and contemporary, yet still uncommon, presence positions Lavender as a choice that balances antique refinement with understated modernity.