Willow

Willow is an English word name taken directly from the willow tree. It comes from the Old English welig, which has relatives in the Dutch wilg and the German Weide, and name dictionaries agree on the plain meaning: willow tree. It is pronounced WIL-oh in both British and American English.

The tree's associations reach back to the Bible: Psalm 137 pictures the exiled Israelites hanging up their harps on the willows of Babylon, an image that gave the willow a lasting link with grief and longing. In modern fiction, Willow Rosenberg is one of the central characters of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the Whomping Willow is a well-known feature of the Hogwarts grounds in the Harry Potter books. Among living namesakes, the actress Willow Shields played Primrose Everdeen in The Hunger Games films.

For most of the twentieth century Willow was rarely given to girls in the United States; 125 were named in 1996, when the name ranked 1,348. It then rose steadily, entering the top 100 in 2016 at 96 and reaching its best rank of 37 in 2022. In 2025 it stood at 44, with 4,763 babies given the name.

The climb makes Willow one of the clearest nature-name successes of the past three decades, moving from near-obscurity to a settled place in the top fifty.