Azalea
Feminine · Greek roots · “the azalea flower”
Linnaeus gave the azalea its name in the eighteenth century, and English-speaking parents began giving it to daughters alongside Rose, Violet and Lily. It is a word most people can already spell and already picture: a shrub that blooms hard in spring, in whites and pinks and reds. In the mouth it rolls easily — three light syllables with the stress in the middle.
How old is the name Azalea?
Azalea first appears in US birth records in 1902 — 123 years ago. The typical Azalea is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 11,500 people named Azalea are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Azalea most popular?
Azalea peaked in 2025, reaching #278 nationally. Today it ranks #278, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Azalea appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From azaleos (Greek, "dry") to Azalea
The story of Azalea
The word reached botany before it reached the nursery: Linnaeus fixed Azalea as a genus name in the mid-eighteenth century, borrowing Greek azaleos, "dry." Botanists later folded the group into Rhododendron, but the older name stuck fast in gardens and everyday speech. When English-speaking parents took up flower names in the nineteenth century — Rose, Violet, Daisy, Iris — Azalea came along as one of the less-used members of that set, and it turns up in American records from the early twentieth century onward. Its recent rise came with a broader return to botanical names.
Meaning
the azalea flower; from Greek azaleos, "dry"
Linnaeus named the genus Azalea in his Species Plantarum of 1753, taking the Greek word for "dry" — a nod to the dry ground the shrub tolerates. As a given name it is simply the flower; the Greek root sits underneath, and almost nobody uses it as the working meaning.
How the name formed
- azaleosGreek, "dry"
- Azaleabotanical Latin, Linnaeus
- AzaleaEnglish given name
Related forms: Azalea · Azalea · Azalée · Azaleia · Azalia · Азалия (Azaliya)
Pronouncing Azalea
uh-ZAYL-yuh
Also said uh-ZAY-lee-uh, with four syllables. Both are standard for the flower and both are used for the name; you will hear each one back from strangers.
Nicknames for Azalea
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1902
- Most girls named
- 20251,109 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #278reached in 2025
- Change vs 2023
- +31.9%1,109 in 2025, from 841
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Azalea in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Azalea in Spanish — same name
- Azalea in Italian — same name
- Azalée in French — spelling variant
- Azaleia in Portuguese — spelling variant
- Azalia in Polish — related form
- Азалия (Azaliya) in Russian — transliteration
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Azaleas among us
people named Azalea are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,449 born in 2025 was named Azalea
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Candy test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Azalea's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Candy climbed just as high around 1969, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Candy's path sketches the road Azalea is walking now.
Azalea is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Azalea is headed
Azalea looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 15% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Azalea beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Azalea in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A common English word, so most people can spell it after hearing it once and picture it immediately.
- Sits inside a long, unbroken tradition of flower names — Rose, Lily, Violet, Iris — that has never fully gone out of use.
- Holds its shape across Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Polish, changing at most a letter or an accent.
- Several short forms already in real use: Zaley, Azzy, Lia.
- Two pronunciations circulate — three syllables or four — and you will end up choosing one and repeating it. Neither is wrong, which is precisely why the correction never quite ends.
- Azalia is a genuine separate spelling, so expect the occasional misfiled form even though the flower spelling is the familiar one.
- An Australian rapper performs under Azalea as a stage surname, which is the first association for some listeners and no association at all for others.
- It is climbing steadily. A child named Azalea today is unlikely to share a classroom with another, but the name is heading toward wider recognition rather than away from it.
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What they receive
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Azalea
Feminine · Greek roots · #278 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Azaleas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 11,500 people named Azalea are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Azalea in 2025?
- Azalea ranks #278 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,109 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Azalea?
- About 1 in every 1,449 US girls born in 2025 was named Azalea — 1,109 in all.
- Will my child share the name Azalea with classmates?
- Azalea will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Azalea
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lilith#277 · Lena#279 · Alanna#280 · Harmony#276 · Shiloh#281 · Lola#275 · Sylvie#282 · Juliet#274
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Azalea? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Azalea and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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