Nature Names for Girls

A Hybrid Tea Rose is a popular garden rose, developed to produce a single flower per stem. Tearose is a rare but whimsical compound that could perhaps be used as a middle for the daughter of a florist or gardener.

Jessenia and Yesenia are drawn from the Spanish name for a South American tree, making them new nature names.

Quirky tree name with baby name potential.

Timber as a name is given to slightly more girls than boys each year. It's actually got a cute sound, ala Kimber(ly) and may be an original tree choice for a girl. Timberly and Timberlee are also found (but not encouraged).

In English, a fen is a wetland fed by surface and/or groundwater. In Dutch and Frisian, it's a traditional diminutive of names containing the element frid, meaning "peace".

A potential nickname for Lake, or in professional surfer Lakey Peterson's case, Laura Louise.

Fresh, evocative choice.

A genus of birds in the flycatcher family, Elaenia is one of the many unique baby names in the Elena family. But that spelling is sure to trip up some people.

Heron fits in with the modern nature names that are so stylish at the moment, but it also has history as the name of a Greek inventor and Egyptian saint. Both were male, but Heron's image as a word name makes it accessible for girls as well.

Nimbus is a new nature name that works for either gender and manages to be both familiar and unique. An evocative and daring nature name for the future.

A genus of tropical shrubs that bear white and pink flowers.

Better known as Tapioca, Cassava makes an innovative way to get to the nicknames Cass or Cassie.

Ten times as many boys are named Oak as girls: about 50 boys last year to five girls. Of course, nature names don't have any traditional gender identification the way names like John and Mary do, so Oak works well for all babies. Oakley is the most popular Oak name for babies of all genders.

Spruce is a very rare tree name, given to only six baby boys last year....and no girls. But there's nothing traditionally gendered about this name, which can work just as well for baby girls.

The name of a grass plant native to India, which is used in aromatherapy and for its essential oil. Vetiver could make for a striking alternative to Violet, Clover or Juniper.

Princess Atta is a royal ant in the Pixar film A Bug's Life, named for a genus of ants.

Olympic athlete Usain Bolt introduced this unusual and electric nature name to the lexicon when he chose it for his daughter's middle name: Olympia Lightning Bolt. Now there's a name with layers of meaning!

This name comes from a genus of beautiful black and white Australian butterflies. Given the rise of "el" names such as Eleanor, Eloise, and Ella, Elodina could make a good choice for someone looking for a rarer name.

In botany, a catkin is a long, thin flower cluster found on trees such as willow, hazel, oak and birch. The word derives from Middle Dutch katteken "kitten", due to the resemblance to a kitten's furry tail.

This fragrant name was sometimes seen in hippie communes in the days of flower power.