Camellia
Feminine · “Kamel's flower”
Camellia is named for a Jesuit — Georg Kamel, a Moravian brother who cataloged the plants of the Philippines, and whom Linnaeus honored in 1753.
How old is the name Camellia?
Camellia first appears in US birth records in 1921 — 104 years ago. The typical Camellia alive today was born around 1993, making them about 32 years old. About 3,100 people named Camellia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Camellia most popular?
Camellia peaked in 1948, reaching #1386 nationally. Today it ranks #1673, 287 places below that high. See the whole 1948 chart.
Camellia appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Kamel to Camellia
The story of Camellia
Kamel died in Manila in 1706 having cataloged the flora of Luzon; Linnaeus named the genus for him half a century later. Tea is a camellia. Flower names rose in English naming from the Victorian period, and Camellia appears in the American registers steadily, rising through the 2010s alongside Camila and Amelia.
Meaning
Kamel's flower
From the botanical genus Camellia, named by Linnaeus after Georg Joseph Kamel, a Jesuit lay brother and pharmacist who worked in the Philippines and sent detailed plant descriptions to Europe. The surname Kamel is Czech. The naming is documented in Linnaeus's own work.
How the name formed
- Kamel
- Camellia
Related forms: Camelia · Camelia · Camélia
Pronouncing Camellia
kuh-MEEL-yuh
Four syllables in careful speech, three in ordinary use, stress on the second. Romanian Camelia is kah-MEH-lee-ah.
Nicknames for Camellia
Moderate
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
- 1921
- Most girls named
- 2025123 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1386reached in 1948
- Change vs 2023
- +3.4%123 in 2025, from 119
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.
Camellia in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Camelia in Italian — spelling variant
- Camelia in Romanian — same name
- Camélia in French — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Camellias among us
people named Camellia are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 13,067 born in 2025 was named Camellia
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Camellia
- #1673
- Camellia on the 2025 chart
- #786
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Camellia went to 123 girls in 2025, but Camelia and Kamelia are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 174, which makes it the 786th most-given girls’ name of the year — 887 places above the chart.
- Camellia123
- Camelia40
- Kamelia11
About 1 girl in 9,237 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 13,067 for Camellia itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Marcell test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Camellia's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Marcell climbed just as high around 1923, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Marcell's path sketches the road Camellia is walking now.
Camellia sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Camellia is headed
Camellia should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Camellia beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Camellia in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The flower is real and the man it honors is documented by name and date.
- Tea comes from a camellia, which is a genuinely good fact.
- Cami is a short form with real modern currency.
- Camelia with one l is the standard Romanian and Italian spelling.
- Camila and Camille are both close enough to cause confusion.
- The syllable count varies between careful and ordinary speech.
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What they receive
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Camellia
Feminine · #1673 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Camellias are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,100 people named Camellia are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Camellia?
- Camellia is the most-used spelling in US records — 123 of the 174 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Camelia and Kamelia.
- How popular is the name Camellia in 2025?
- Camellia ranks #1673 among US girl names in 2025, with 123 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Camellia?
- About 1 in every 13,067 US girls born in 2025 was named Camellia — 123 in all.
- Will my child share the name Camellia with classmates?
- Camellia will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Camellia
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maylin#1673 · Kalilah#1673 · Vamika#1673 · Miya#1673 · Adrienne#1673 · Alannah#1673 · Denise#1673 · Shoshana#1673
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Camellia? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Camellia and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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