She’s a buttoned-up botanical with a pop culture link.
Thanks to Amanda for suggesting Primrose as our Baby Name of the Day.
Rose appears in many compound names, and yet Primrose is a rarity, never in the US Top 1000 and worn by a relatively small number of women compared to Rosalie or Rosanna.
Perhaps Primrose suffers from her proper first syllable. Prim comes from the French for delicate, ultimately from the Latin primus – first. There’s a funny little skip there – being first can imply being the best, and so our prissy prim once meant exquisite.
The flower shares the same root, but instead of delicate, the idea is that the primrose was the first rose to bloom.
Several species are known as primrose. Together, they can be found throughout Europe, and into Africa and Asia. The evening primrose – which is properly known as oenthera – is native to North and South America.
In the Victorian-era language of flowers, primrose means “I can’t live without you.”
It’s also a surname, derived from the Welsh words pren – tree and rhos – moor, suggesting it began as a place name.
Archibald Primrose, the 5th Earl of Rosebery served as Foreign Secretary under Queen Victoria. The Earl was quite the popular figure. He married banking heiress Hannah de Rothschild, the wealthiest woman in Britain. Hannah died at the age of 39, just before her husband achieved his lifelong goal of being named prime minister.
Victorian-era politics give us a second meaning for the flowers. They were a particular favorite of prime minister Benjamin Disraeli. Queen Victoria sent a wreath of primroses to his funeral. The Primrose League adopted the bloom as its symbol, signifying conservative principles, and Primrose Day is April 19, the anniversary of Disraeli’s death.
A 1918 Vitagraph film called Wild Primrose starred Gladys Leslie as Primrose Standish. I’m not certain of the film’s plot.
Another chance for the name to catch on was a Gershwin musical – Primrose, debuted in London in 1924. One of the characters is penning a romantic tale of a fictional Primrose. His story mirrors the misadventures in the play. Primrose never made it big, in part because the Gershwins’ Lady, Be Good! was on Broadway at the time.
British dramedy The Darling Buds of May ran in the early 90s. It is best known for launching the career of Catherine Zeta-Jones, who played eldest daughter Mariette Louise Larkin. Her younger siblings included:
- Montgomery;
- Primrose;
- Twins Zinnia and Petunia;
- Victoria;
- Oscar.
The characters were based on stories written by H.E. Brooks between 1958 and 1970; more fascinating still, the stories were based on a glimpse of a real family.
But the game-changer comes from current bestselling trilogy The Hunger Games. Primrose Everdeen is the younger sister of Katniss, the heroine of the series. Katniss volunteers for the Games to save her sister, though Prim eventually proves herself heroic, too.
Like Prudence or Temperance, there’s a risk to giving your daughter a good girl name. Perhaps that’s why Primrose has never really taken off, despite her appealing sound and nature name style. She’s an intriguing option for the middle spot. The Hunger Games character could help reinvent her. For now, Primrose remains a true rarity.
I like Primrose a lot. I like “Rose” names in general, though. Alas, my husband is adamant– no flowers, no months, no gems, and nothing else that’s an ordinary word or sounds like it.
Thanks for the info on Primula, Jane. She doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as easily as Primrose but I like her all the same. I’m still mulling Primrose over and whilst I love her unique blend of ‘starchy playfulness’ there are such a plethora of beautiful Rose names to choose from like Verity says. Rosamond is lovely and Rosalie is just about as cute as a button!
I have never before considered Primrose as a given name — I’ve obviously yet to read The Hunger Games — but while I don’t exactly dislike it I can’t say it thrills me either. For some reason one of the first words that came to my mind when I saw this listed as NotD is “prissy”, probably because of the “prim” prefix.
I’m guessing Primrose will be the Hunger Games’ “Luna”. In my stepdaughter’s health class they recently did the “baby think it over” program and it seems that the HG names were quite popular.
Primrose feels very patrician, like a London Telegraph name. But at the same time, because of Appalachians setting of the Hunger Games,I keep thinking Primrose is the perfect name for a country girl… in the same vein as Dolly and Pearl.
That is a list I would love to see – what do teenagers name their baby-think-it-overs? And if asked, would they say it is a name they’d consider giving a real child, or would they acknowledge it was an outrageous choice prompted by project? Hmmmm …
My “grandchild” was named Bruno Garnett and my nephew (who is also in the class) named his son Dimitri. Her friends had children named Roux, Atticus, Adalyn and Evangeline.
I ask her about some of the others…
I did a search and picked these doll names out of a comment thread. These are names from 2005-2006 though:
Layla
Kideki
Étienne
Dylan
Megan
Mae
Vivi
Itszury
Chelsea
Charlie
Ari Guy
Mia Brown
Harley
Tatiyanna
Makenzie Aubrey
Jordon
Carter
Ryan
Andrea Paige
James Andrew
Maddi
Jovie Dalane
Alexis Faith
Emily Elizabeth
Esmurade
Dante
Aiden Cole
Bryce
Malachi
Shane
Josh
Grace
Brooklyn Brynea
Madison Elizabeth
Krystal
Zachary and Sarah (twins)
Ethan Blake
Devan or Peyton for a girl
Conner or Braedan
Nichole Lee (Chloe for short)
Kimmy
Dekota
Motoko “Momo” (Japanese doll)
Matthew
Brent Ryan
One commenter who named the doll Harley said that she planned to name a real child Harlequin, with the nickname Harley.
Somewhat tangential, but I once worked at a summer camp with a camper who went by Quin. Her full name? Harlequin.
I rather like Primrose. It is pretty and sweet-sounding. I can see it more as a Victorian-era revival name as opposed to a flower name, which puts it solidly on my ‘like’ list. I like the above posters nickname Prose (even if it was an accident!), and Rose always works, too, although I kinda like Prim. It isn’t a word used a lot nowadays, so I think that works in its favor.
Rose is my absolute favourite name (although I love R
That sums up my thoughts on the name too. We have a Rose and never considered Primrose at the time. I’d probably like it better as a middle name – especially as a spin on the ever-popular-middle-name-Rose.
I once knew a Tongan girl called Primrose….she went by the nickname Lima. Sounds like a bit of a stretch, but it’s the Tongan pronunciation of the ‘rim’ in the first syllable.
Now that is fascinating!
Primrose feels very British. Not that that’s a bad thing. It’s just not something that I would immediatly be drawn to.
kinda crazy, kinda awesome! that’s my take.
Yikes, I guess I’ll be the voice of dissent – I can’t imagine introducing myself as Primrose, and I’m guessing little Primroses born nowadays would ask to be called Rose or Rosie once they get to be school-aged. It’s fine as a middle name, of course. I much prefer Rosalie, Rosalind, Rosemary, R
Rosemary, Rosalind, and Rosamond are some of my favorites – so Primrose wouldn’t be for me, either. Actually, there are SO many good Rose names …