Primrose
Where Primrose comes from
The surname derives from a place name in Fife, Scotland; Watson (1926) derived this from Pictish/Proto-Brythonic *prenn (“wood, tree”) + *rros (“moor, heath”). Taylor instead argued for Scottish Gaelic prím (“first”) + ros (“promontory”). Changed by folk etymology because of phonetic resemblance to primrose. The given name is one of the 19th-century flower names.
- English
- Vowel-ended
Along the way
- 1914First appearance#3,618 among girls, 5 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
- 2021Peak, #2,05793 babies named Primrose — more than any year before or since.
In the dictionary
- A female given name from English.
Namesakes
We look up famous namesakes for names that have made the top 1,000. Primrose hasn't yet.
Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.