Apple, Clementine, Plum … how ’bout this one from the orchard?
Thanks to Racheli for suggesting Peach as our Baby Name of the Day.
If you named your daughter Peach, she wouldn’t really be the first. High-profile starbaby turned model/television personality Peaches Honeyblossom Geldof got there first. Peaches and sibs Fifi and Pixie often pop up on lists of crazy baby names, but that’s been happening for so long that all three names feel less daffy than they did once upon a time.
Other notables include:
- Fashion designer Peach Carr, a Season Eight Project Runway alum. Her Etsy shop is empty, but it sounds like she’s doing well;
- If you happened to see the 2003 Amanda Bynes vehicle What a Girl Wants, you might recall aristocratic debutante twin sisters called Peach and Pear, played by real-life twin sisters Connie and Cassie. (The actresses also played twins Sophie and Mel on Hollyoaks.)
- Another fictional figure is Princess Peach Toadstool of the Mushroom Kingdom in the Mario video game universe. In recent years, she’s graduated from the predictable damsel requiring rescue to a playable headline character in Super Princess Peach.
But let’s get back to the fruit.
We’ve been calling them peaches for ages, since the 1100s. The word was pesche in Old French; that ultimately derives from the Latin pessica and persica, words borrowed from the phrase Persian apple.
Peaches originally come from China, but the first ones arrived in Europe via Persia – Persis. Persis pops up in the New Testament, and appears in Colonial America, too. There are plenty of types to choose from, available all over the world.
Other meanings have attached over the years:
- Here’s my favorite quirky peach fact: the Middle English peche meant sin. In French, péché still means sin, while the fruit is pêche. So the surname probably implied something between all-out-roguishness and a certain tendency towards less-than-choirboy behavior;
- That’s not a well-known reference these days, but you might hear a woman described as a peach, and a “peaches and cream” complexion is another compliment.
Despite their exotic origins, today it is tough to hear peach and not think of the American South – specifically Georgia. The state is home to Peach County. In the days before corporate sponsorship, the big football game was The Peach Bowl. On New Year’s Eve, New York City drops a ball, but Atlanta counts down with a peach. There’s a Georgia Peach Festival, and, naturally, a Miss Georgia Peach. But peaches flourish in many parts of the US. Thomas Jefferson planted dozens of varieties in the orchards at his Virginia home, Monticello.
The name has some history of use, too. While she’s never cracked the US Top 1000, there are plenty of Peaches in US Census records. More of them are female, but there’s a healthy helping of men who answered to Peach, too, likely inspired by the surname.
All of this makes Peach a sweet name, the kind of wacky, unconventional choice that can grow on you over time. There’s an innocence to her, and a certain blending of the exotic and the familiar. Be prepared for questions aplenty if you put Peach in the first spot, but she’s a fun, unexpected middle name choice.
Princess Peach is actually Princess Momo in Japan. Momo means peach in Japanese and is actually a fairly common girl’s name there. I have to admit that I think Momo is actually pretty cute and would be more inclined to use that if I wanted to reference peaches. I think Momo fits in sweetly with names like Coco, Lulu and Kiki.
For me, peaches also has a very sexual connotation that I feel wary of — but that’s probably just because of the song “Peaches” by Presidents of the United States that came out when I was a senior in high school. Someone explained to me what “peaches” was slang for at that time and It was hard for me to forget.
Oh – that is the name of Kate’s assistant in I Don’t Know How She Does It!
Peach is a little too cutesy and a little too much of a word-name for my personal taste, but wow, she certainly has a great etymological history! I’ve loved Persis ever since the name was brought to my attention via some of Montgomery’s later Anne books. I can’t help but think that Montgomery’s own obvious love of names helped to fuel my own interest in the topic. I wonder what Maud would have thought of Peach as a name?
I know a Peaches and a Little Peaches at college where I attend right now. My understanding is that it’s their surname, and they are male. So whenever I think about Peach or Peaches as a name, I think of these brothers. I use to think fruit names belong to girls, but not anymore especially after I met those two guys. 🙂
I went to college with a Peaches, whose 2 sisters are also named for fruits. Peaches is somehow easier on the ears for me than Peach. I agree with Rosy that it would make a very sweet nickname and I also like Persica (which could have the nn Peaches).
While at college I also knew a Berry (male and more my parents’ age – he was not a student) and in grad school, a Pepper (technically a fruit – and her full first name).
Fruit names never make me entirely comfortable up front and center, but I do see the appeal. Peaches, though, it’s not my favorite – I’m more partial to Plum or Clementine. Hmmm, what about Satsuma?
I was “bullied” by a Peaches in first grade, but it’s pretty hard to take anyone named with that name seriously, so not much damage was done. I think Peach is absolutely ridiculous as a first name, and I feel the same way about Plum or Apple (but Clementine is nice).
Patricia nicknamed Peach would be kind of cute and unexpected, I suppose.
Wow – a) you knew someone named Peaches! and b) she wasn’t just a little, well, er, peach. I’m dismayed!
I remember reading a book with a character called Aunt Peach. My memory is spotty, but I think the character’s given name may have been Patricia.
Peach feels like a name name for a Palomino or a teacup poodle or in the case of the character an elderly, southern woman. I can deal with Plum or Quince, but Peach is pushing it. Strictly a nickname only.
Persis is lovely.
Ha! My friend C. refers to herself as “Aunt Peaches” with all of our kids. It’s a joke, but she is That Friend who buys your kids fingerpaints and drum kits and the big bag of Cheetos. And she’s really the best person ever, so I forgive her. But doubtless this is part of the reason Peaches seems daffy, but sweet, to me.
Sometimes when someone asks how I’m feeling, I’ll say peachy, which can mean anything from fine to excellent. Peaches Geldof is considered somewhat of a joke here in the UK, so it’s unlikely that either Peach or Peaches will catch on here. She does have so much potential, though, it’s a bit of a shame.
I really like fruit names, but Peach not so much. I think that Peach as a name has an overly sugery sweet and almost anti-feminist feel to her. I think because I imagine an older generation of men using the term ‘peach’ interchangeably with ‘doll’ or ‘honey’ for grown women and it verges on inappropriate to me. Does that sound crazy?
Now that is really interesting – and valid, too, I think. Plum and Clementine have either no history of use to refer to a person, or enough history that it isn’t tied to anything. Peach has been used, and not always in a pleasant way.
Yeah, something sounds a ‘little off’ with the name to me too. Not quite sure I can put my finger on it. Like there’s a sexual undertone or something – which is not what you want for your baby girl.
I do think it would be cute in the middle name spot though.
Yeah, one line that kept running through my head while reading this was, “She’s a peach”. It sounds like the kind of thing said by the less-than-desirable suitor in older movies.
It’s not really for me, but I see the appeal. I do like Persis and Persica though.
A mystery to me is whether Peaches Geldof likes her name or not. She seems to be quoted saying she loves her name, hates her name, finds it embarrassing, and wants to continue the naming tradition by giving her own children fruit names. Not sure which one (if any) are true?
A good question – but I’ll bet she’s really too young to have made up her mind.
I remember seeing a Peach on one season of The Amazing Race, once. It was the 2nd season. She was on the show with her sister, Mary.