Its not a plant exactly but I know a Wood
Sweet William is another name for Vinca. I have it growing in my yard.
In one of Betty Smith’s books (is it *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn *or Maggie-Now? I think the latter) there is a family that has a number of daughters and one son; the daughters are all named after flowers – Violet, Rose, etc., and the son is named Chrysanthemum. They call him Chris. He suffers no end of teasing.
Sweet William is usually Dianthus barbatus, a pink that bears its flowers in groups. I’ve never heard it applied to Vinca.
How about [Sage](Common - Wikipedia Sage), both a flowering herb and a male first name.
I’m just going by the name on the little pot I purchased it in. (Those dianthus are gawgeous.)
I have another ground cover that was sold to me as “White Nancy” but my friends all call it dead nettle. I hate that name!
I can’t find it right now in the book, but the OP reminds me of an exchange in Sharyn mcCrumb’s excellent Bimbos of the Death Sun that goes something like this:
Girls: Our names are Rosemany and Marjoram. What’s yours?
Guy: Herb.
My immediate thought upon reading the thread. My father’s nickname is “Jacek” (pron. JAH-tsehk) in Polish, which translates as Hyacinth. In fact, there is a St. Hyacinth Church, which is how I first realized that Hyacinth is Jacek (the Polish called the church “Święty Jacek.”)
Yes.
Yeah, it’s pretty Lamium.
If you go into the wider plant kingdom, there’s:
Heath
Thorn
Holly (unisex) or Hollis
Rowan
Leaf (as someone else said above)
Forest
Reed
As well as other even less common names - Cedric comes from Cedar.
Interesting that Hyacinth has common boys’ name version in other languages but is definitely feminine these days in English.
Japanese, Chinese, Sikh and Hindu names are often unisex, so boys can be named after flowers as well as girls.
All the Plantagenets were named after a flower.
Pete Rose?
Larry, Lawrence, or Laurance. I believe all are from Laurel.
Robert Plant
It really does seem that our, at least, our Anglo-Franco forebears didn’t name the baby boys after the alluring parts of plants. Rather, it was all about the big manly trees, or places where they grew. A sampling:
Ashford, Ashe, Ashleigh, Ashby, Ashton— Ash
Acton, Chaney- Oak
Berkeley, Barclay-Birch
Eldridge—Alder
Ewan,York—Yew
Frasier-- strawberry, and then ya have Berry, too
Hollis and Heath, for their plants
Laurence, Laurie, Lars, Lorenzo, Lonnie----Laurel
Lyndon—Linden
Oliver—um, yep, Olive
And, a whole heapin’ helping of guys who hailed from in or around The Woods:
Bruce,Guy(Guido),Silas, Shelley,Sylvester, Woodward/Woody, to name a few.
One instance of a male flower name in was in Hindu culture, where names that meant lotus are appreciated: Arvinda, Kairav, Rajeer, and Pankaj. The lotus flower also has a high symbolic meaning as rising from the muck of it’s roots and flowering in exquisite symmetry, as a mind might with spiritual awareness. So, not just the flower, but powerful meaning.
Sad to see that not many men are given flower names, but, in botany, almost all flowers are scientifically named after men, with a tradition of honorifics. Weird ol’ world.
Oh, and , Jackmanii, I saw what ya did there with lamium and hibiscus. Heh hee, nice.
Alfalfa
Rosey Grier
Stephen Root
Wayland Flowers
Holly
Ivy
Rosey is short for Roosevelt…no flowers.