Dahlia
Meaning
from the flower, named after botanist Anders Dahl
The story
Dahlia is Magnolia's story with a Swedish botanist: the flower honors Anders Dahl, as our meaning records note, which means every Dahlia carries a hidden eighteenth-century surname exactly the way every Magnolia carries Pierre Magnol's. The record kept it rare for a century, under 450 a decade into the 1980s, a hothouse name Americans admired but rarely picked. The bloom is recent: about 840 in the 1990s, 2,400 in the 2000s, 7,000 in the 2010s, and 7,000 again so far this decade, within a whisker of the full 2010s with years still to run. One figure is absolute: across the whole record, not one boy, 19,400 girls to zero. It flowers in the same bed as Magnolia and Iris from these batches, the botanical register at full spring: a garden flower, a hidden botanist, and a name whose second century is opening better than its first.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Dahlia peaked in the 2010s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
28 people · the #99,072 first name in Brazil · median age 12
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Dahlia
Most people given the name Dahlia in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Dahlia deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Dahlia truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Dahlia fits with your family’s names and surname.
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