Rosemary

What Rosemary means

Means “dew of the sea”

After mid-nineteenth century when flower names became common it may also refer to the herb rosemary, Latin ros marinus "dew of the sea".

Source: Wiktionary, “Rosemary” (revision 93436265), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Rosemary?

US: Rising: up from #517 in 2015. England & Wales: Rising: up from #686 in 2015.

Biggest US share so far: 1946, when 4,486 girls got the name (#74 that year). First in the US records in 1882.

How common

• About 1 in 1,315 baby girls in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 3,127 baby girls in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 5,964 baby girls in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in AK (4.84 per 1,000 girls), DC (2.97 per 1,000 girls), HI (2.8 per 1,000 girls) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed girls born in each state.

US vs UK

Rosemary is #251 in the US and #490 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (girls). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Rosemary were girls.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

If you like Rosemary

Girls

• Florence#391“flowering, flourishing”^*
• Goldie#621From the word “gold”^*
• Ivory#378Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #378 vs #2,440 in 2025
• Maxine#496Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #1,106 in 2015, #496 in 2025
• Aura#817“breeze”^*
• Mavis#560Editor’s note Up from #1,003 in 2015 to #560 in 2025 in the US

For a brother

• Leon#138“lion”^*
• Theodore#4Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #99 in 2015, #4 in 2025
• Felix#175“happy, lucky”^*
• Sonny#298Editor’s note Climbing fast in the US: #822 in 2015, #298 in 2025
• Augustine#545Same root as Austin, meaning “majestic”^*
• Lionel#659“lion”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under English, Latin, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Rosemary’s. Rank is US 2025.