Tigerlily: Baby Name of the Day

She’s fierce and floral all at once.

Our Baby Name of the Day is Tigerlily.

Torn about whether to name your daughter Fox or Rose?  Look no further.  This name pairs an apex predator with a delicate blossom for a name that is a study in contrasts.

Maybe that’s not entirely fair.  Tigerlily isn’t exactly a smoosh name – it is a legitimate bloom.  Or a few blooms, which all can be called the tiger lily, usually written as two words rather than one.

A white lily is elegant and restrained.  The bright flame orange of tiger lilies is the opposite – assertive and bold.  But so are botanicals like Zinnia and Azalea.

What’s more, Tigerlily has more history as a given name that you would think.

First there’s the Native American princess in Peter Pan.  She’s a love interest for the boy hero, a permanent resident of Neverland who proves unceasingly loyal, at least in most versions of the enduring J.M. Barrie tale.

There’s also a Tiger-lily in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass.  She’s actually a tiger lily.  When Alice addresses a garden full of flowers, the flowers talk back.  Tiger-lily is among the chattiest.

In 1940, Lucille Ball played a chorus girl called Tigerlily in Dance, Girl, Dance.  The flick featured a pair of roommates and aspiring dancers, both trying to hit it big in New York.  Dance was a dud, but over the years it has attracted a following.

Then came the 1990s, and two high profile uses pushed Tigerlily onto some parents’ radar.

First was Natalie Merchant’s 1995 album Tigerlily.  Merchant had just ditched 10,000 Maniacs, and her folksy indie style was very of the moment.

In 1996, INXS frontman Michael Hutchence and British television host Paula Yates welcomed a daughter named Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily.  The first two names were chosen by her half-sisters, while mom and dad settled on the second two.  She is known as Tiger, which isn’t so wacky when you consider that those half-sisters are Fifi, Peaches, and Pixie.

1998 is the first year that more than five girls received the name in the US.  In recent years, around a dozen girls are named Tigerlily annually.  But let’s not forget – Tigerlily can fly under the radar.  A few girls have also received the name Tiger.  There’s no way to prove it, but I suspect that some of them have Lily for a middle name.

It appears that Tigerlily is most often bestowed as a single smoosh name.  Waltzing More Than Matilda has reported on a few babies called Tiger Lily and also Tigerlily.

All things considered, Tigerlily is among the more outlandish of the blossom names parents might consider in 2013.  And yet that doesn’t mean she’s unwearable.  She shortens to the inconspicuous Lily as easily as the stand-out Tiger.  And the flowers are lovely.

If you’re after a truly unexpected floral name, Tigerlily could make your list.