Tansy: Baby Name of the Day

The baby name Tansy has all the appeal of Daisy, but is nearly as rare as Chrysanthemum. 

Thanks to Fran for suggesting our Baby Name of the Day – and to Bertram Bergamot for suggesting this post was due for an update!

WHAT DOES THE NAME TANSY MEAN?

The average flower name is obviously plucked from the garden. And that’s part of why we love them, right? Lily, Violet, and Iris all rank in the current US Top 100. Choices like Poppy and Rose aren’t far behind.

Tansy is a little less familiar.

A member of the aster family, it’s native to Europe and Asia. Also known as mugwort, tansy is sometimes considered a weed. 

But it is a flower, with clusters of small bright yellow blossoms, a little like buttons. It’s native to Eurasia, and appears in guides to traditional household gardens at least as far back as the 700s. Ancient Greeks used it for medicinal purposes even earlier.

As for the name Tansy, it has a Greek origin. It comes from athanasia – immortality, via the Latin tanacita. 

It’s known for being a stubborn, rugged species. Instead of a weed, maybe we should consider a wildflower – which opens the door to thinking of Tansy as a girl’s name.

EASTER NAME

In the Middle Ages, tansy was used in cooking. Recipes using the plant can be found well into the 1700s. Tansy cake – not quite a pancake, not exactly an omelet – was traditionally prepared at Easter. 

They’re forgotten now. Possibly that’s because, instead of medicinal properties, tansy can potentially be mildly toxic.

Still, the forgotten custom adds a little bit of seasonal appeal to this unusual name.

HEDGEHOG, COMPOSER, SHEPHERD’S DAUGHTER

It feels maybe slightly British. As it happens, the baby name Tansy has surfaced over the years, including:

• A 1921 British silent film called Tansy featured Alma Taylor in the title role. Taylor’s Tansy is a shepherd’s daughter who finds herself embroiled in a scandal when she’s attacked by a farm laborer. Tansy’s father dies, but she finds work as a shepherdess, and after some more trials and tribulations, there is a happy ending.
• Another reference from England: 21st century composer Tansy Davies. Like her name, her music nods to the natural world. (In 2021, she composed an album titled Nature.) 
• There’s a hedgehog in the Redwall series by BrianJacques who answers to the name. Jacques mixes very human names – think Martin – with word names like Basil, so Tansy fits right in.

TANSY IN POP CULTURE

In 1943, American writer Fritz Leiber gave the name Tansy Saylor to a witch/housewife in Conjure Wife. Her husband’s success as a professor was tied to her spellcasting; when he forced her to quit, his university career crumbled. 

It’s obscure, but it remained influential over the years. In 1962, it inspired a horror film titled Night of the Eagle. The bewitching wife? Still called Tansy.

As for other spellings, Hilary Duff played Tanzie, a Paris Hilton-esque character in 2006’s Material Girls. It’s a flashier cousin to modern innovations like Kenzie.

Game of Thrones used the name for a tragic, short-lived character in the fourth season.

Hart of Dixie gave us a different Tansy. She starts out a little on the wild side, but grows as the show progresses. 

While it’s often the name of a character, it’s a little harder to find in real life. One possibility: it might be a cute name for something longer.

A number of eponymous novels and children’s books use the name, but none are so popular that they’d boost the popularity of this name.

FORMAL NAMES FOR TANSY

Tanzie and Tanzi briefly appear in the data around 1960 and 1970, suggesting it fits in with names like Nancy and Tammy.

Or maybe it’s a formal name. What could Tansy be short for?

• Athanasia is the logical choice. There’s a ninth century Byzantine saint by the name, and it reflects the origin of the plant name, too. 
• Constance is a more familiar choice, with the sounds right there in the second syllable. The German Constanze and Spanish Constanza are also options, too.
• Thomasina often shortens to Tamsin or Tammy, but the sounds are there. 
• More popular names, like Tatiana and Natsha, might work, too. 

HOW POPULAR IS THE NAME TANSY?

Daisy is a go-to choice for little girls, currently in the US Top 200. 

But Tansy? It’s never appeared in the US Top 1000. Digging into the Social Security Administration (SSA) data, we find:

• Six girls were named Tansy in 2023. The all-time high was 14 births in 2022.
• A handful of girls have been named Tanzie. The last time it appeared in SSA data was 2011, with five births. (Any number less than five is not reported for privacy reasons.)
• A very few girls have been named Tanzi, including five born in 2011.
• Tancy has also been used a few times, but it has not appeared in the data during the twenty-first century. 
• Soemtimes seen as a surname, Tansey also surfaces in the data as a baby’s name a few times in the 1970s and 80s. 

As for the comparison to Chrysanthemum mentioned earlier? Eight girls were given that elaborate floral in 2023. On the other hand, Tansy does fare better than sound-alike Pansy, which failed to appear in the 2023 data at all.

In terms of popularity, the baby name Tansy really is quite rare.

SWEETLY VINTAGE BOTANICAL

If you’re looking for a quiet, unexpected botanical baby girl names with lots of casual charm, then Tansy is one to consider. 

It’s the perfect name to sub for Daisy. With the meaning eternal life and associations with  healing, Tansy offers some real depth. Because we recognize it as the name of a flower, it’s easily understood baby name inspiration in our age of Marigold and Azalea.

If rare baby name girls inspired by nature are your thing, Tansy might belong on your list.

What do you think of the baby name Tansy?

Originally published on August 30, 2011, this post was revised on April 21, 2014 and February 6, 2025.