Entry № 5790 · Latin origin

Lavender Lavender — Meaning, Origin & Baby Name Popularity

/ LAV-en-der /
Gender
Girl
Origin
Latin
Meaning
"Aromatic purple herb (color and plant)"
Syllables
3
First recorded
Modern (English)

A name that means "aromatic purple herb (color and plant)".

Lavender is from the Latin lavare ("to wash") — Romans bathed in lavender-scented water. Lavender also denotes a pale purple color and, since the late 19th century, has been a symbol of lesbian and gay identity — Sappho was associated with violets, and "lavender" became coded slang in 19th-century America. Lavender Brown is a character in J. K.

Aromatic purple herb.

The name in its native script.

Lavender
Transliteration
Lavender
Pronunciation
/ ˈlæv.ən.dər /
Root
Grammatical form

Where Lavender stands.

Lavender does not currently appear in the US Social Security Administration's top 1,000 girls' names, so we don't publish a US rank or birth count for it. That says nothing about the name's standing elsewhere in the world — only that it sits outside the ranked US data we rely on.

Lavenders before her.

Real people
Lavender
Botanical name and color.
In fiction
Lavender Brown
Harry Potter.
1999

Names connected to Lavender.

The number behind Lavender.

9

The Giver

In Pythagorean numerology the letters of Lavender reduce to 9, The Giver. This is a traditional interpretive system, not a factual claim about the name.