Rosemary
The story
Rosemary joins two of the oldest names in the book, Rose and Mary, into one, though it is also simply the herb, whose Latin name ros marinus means dew of the sea, and which has stood for remembrance at least since Shakespeare had Ophelia say so. That double life, compound name and garden plant, gives Rosemary a texture few names can match. Americans first embraced it in the 1920s through the 1940s, when it held a solid place among girls' names, and the singer Rosemary Clooney carried it warmly through the 1950s. It thinned out in the 1970s and 1980s, waiting out the years when herb and flower names felt dated, then rode the botanical revival home: the newest decades of the chart climb back to match its old midcentury strength, making Rosemary that rare vintage name whose best years may genuinely be now. Fragrant, layered, and a little literary, it earns the second look it is getting.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Rosemary peaked in the 1920s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
18,519 people · the #1,118 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 10,989 · median age 54
Among people named Rosemary living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1960s than in any other decade.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
The Rosemary deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Rosemary 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 Rosemary fits with your family’s names and surname.
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