Poppy

femaleEnglish, from Old English popæg, ultimately from Latin papaver

Taken directly from the English word for the red flower.

Origin: English, from Old English popæg, ultimately from Latin papaver

Official popularity data is available for 6 regions, from 1990 to 2025. Highest recorded position: #5 in England and Wales in 2014. See regions.

Poppy: Recorded since 1990, it reached #5 in 2014, and it was still inside the top 100 in 2025.

6registrars recorded it
122times a registrar ranked it
36years from first to last
#5highest recorded position
23groupings it qualifies for
34names it appears alongside

What stands out in Poppy's record

Held a top-100 place for 28 years running. Names by top-100 run
England and Wales registered 3,422 births with the name in 2013, its largest count from any one registrar. Names by yearly birth count
Held at least one birth in every 2,000 for 29 years. Names by sustained share
Appears alongside 34 other names across 7 kinds of recorded relationship. All recorded relationships

POP-ee/ˈpɒpi/

See Poppy as a dog name →

Compare Poppy Run Name Checker on Poppy

Data Confidence

Evidence: ModerateCompleteness: SubstantialEditorial review: 2026-07-21

Confidence in the evidencebehind this name's data — never a rating of the name itself, and never affected by how well it matches your preferences. How this is assessed

Because: backed by officially or academically authoritative sources, recently verified, popularity data covers multiple regions.

Source authority

Averaged from the real per-claim source-authority assessments already computed for this name's meaning/origin/pronunciation/popularity evidence.

Independent corroboration

Averaged from the real per-claim supporting-source counts already computed for this name's evidence.

See full evidence assessment (8 dimensions, 1 not yet tracked)

Source agreement

No recorded source disagreement for this name's meanings or origins.

Recency

Calculated from how long ago this record was last verified (2026-07-21), against a 270-day staleness threshold.

Geographic relevance

Calculated from the number of geographies with official popularity data (6) — broader official coverage means the evidence base is relevant to more of where the name is actually used.

Completeness

Calculated from how many of the expected data sections (variants, similar names, popularity, notable usage, IPA pronunciation) are actually populated for this name.

Direct observation vs. inference

Averaged from the real per-claim direct-observation-vs-inference ratios already computed for this name's evidence.

Identity & variant resolution quality

Cross-source identity and variant resolution requires HEKNO Knowledge, which isn't connected yet.

Name Characteristics

How these are calculated

Descriptive attributes of the name itself — not a confidence measurement, and not an overall quality score. Namewise doesn't approve or disapprove of names.

Pronunciation clarity

Editorial judgement of how consistently this name is pronounced correctly on first read, mapped from an easy/moderate/variable rating to a number. Describes the name — not a measure of evidence confidence.

Spelling simplicity

Calculated directly from the name's spelling: shorter names with fewer irregular letter clusters score higher. A disclosed formula, not an editorial opinion — and not a confidence measurement.

Recorded regional spread

Derived from how many geographies' official statistics record this name. It measures where the name is registered, not how well-known it feels to people living there.

International spread

Derived from the same official statistical coverage, scaled to reflect how widely the name crosses national datasets. Not a measure of how easily it is understood in another language.

Trend stability

Derived from the name's traditional/modern classification and its current popularity trend direction.

Overview

Origin: English, from Old English popæg, ultimately from Latin papaver
Meaning: Taken directly from the English word for the red flower.
Pronunciation: POP-ee
Syllables: 2
Common nicknames: None recorded
Classification: Traditional & modern
Gender usage: female
Language family: English, from Old English popæg, ultimately from Latin papaver

Popularity

Region

Rising

among girls in England and Wales · 1996–2025

View as table

England and Wales · Girls rank by year
Year	Rank
1996	#92
1997	#108
1998	#98
1999	#100
2000	#86
2001	#84
2002	#63
2003	#43
2004	#45
2005	#35
2006	#30
2007	#28
2008	#28
2009	#22
2010	#16
2011	#14
2012	#13
2013	#7
2014	#5
2015	#10
2016	#13
2017	#8
2018	#11
2019	#17
2020	#17
2021	#17
2022	#13
2023	#11
2024	#8
2025	#7

VerifiedSource: Office for National Statistics — Baby Names in England and Wales.Confidence: high.

See all England and Wales names · Source: Office for National Statistics — Baby Names in England and Wales

What the data shows

RisingEngland and Wales · Girls

Recorded in official data among girls in Republic of Ireland in 29 of the 36 years from 1990 to 2025.

In 2025: #7 among girls in England and Wales, #45 among girls in New South Wales, Australia, #105 among girls in Republic of Ireland.

Official data from 6 national registrars across 6 regions, 1990–2025 · Office for National Statistics. Data sources

Popularity journey

First recorded1990
First recorded at #517 among girls in Republic of Ireland in 1990 — the earliest year that source publishes this name, not necessarily the earliest it was used.
Republic of Ireland · Girls
Most recent2025
Most recently recorded at #7 among girls in England and Wales, in 2025.
England and Wales · Girls

Poppy appears in 5 of the published lists Namewise holds. The longest record is England and Wales · Girls, with 30 ranked years and 54,591 births registered; the earliest is Republic of Ireland · Girls, from 1990.

Poppy across 5 official records

Each registrar publishes its own list, so these figures are read down a row, never across one. A position in one country is not comparable with a position in another, and Namewise never combines them into a single ranking. The birth counts do not compare across rows either, for a different reason: England and Wales registers roughly thirty times as many births a year as Northern Ireland, so a larger total says which registrar recorded it as much as how widely the name was given.

Poppy's first, highest and most recent recorded position in each official list, with the number of births each registrar registered with the name and its largest single year
Published list	First recorded	Highest	Most recent	Years recorded	Births registered	Most in one year
Republic of Ireland · Girls	#517 (1990)	#89 (2024)	#105 (2025)	29 of 36	940 (1990–2025)	74 (2013)
England and Wales · Girls	#92 (1996)	#5 (2014)	#7 (2025)	30 of 30	54,591 (1996–2025)	3,422 (2013)
Northern Ireland · Girls	#351 (1998)	#27 (2021)	#47 (2024)	26 of 27	965 (1998–2024)	81 (2014)
New Zealand · Girls	#91 (2005)	#27 (2020)	#36 (2023)	19 of 19	1,374 (2005–2023)	102 (2022)
New South Wales, Australia · Girls	#72 (2009)	#44 (2024)	#45 (2025)	17 of 17	2,051 (2009–2025)	160 (2021)

Poppy by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Births registered with the name in each decade of this one list, with the number of years the list covers in that decade. Bars are scaled on births a year, which is the figure that compares between decades — a decade the list only partly covers has a smaller total without being a quieter decade. Figures belong to this registrar alone and do not carry to another.

Births registered with Poppy in England and Wales · Girls, by decade, with years covered and the average per year
Decade	Births registered	Years covered	A year
1990s	2,055	4 of 10	514
2000s	13,944	10 of 10	1,394
2010sbusiest	27,633	10 of 10	2,763
2020s	10,959	6 of 10	1,827

Across England and Wales · Girls, the 2010s were its busiest decade, averaging 2,763 births a year.

See the names England and Waleshas recorded the most births with →

Poppy appears in

Groupings this name qualifies for under their own stated rules, from the same official statistics shown above.

What the record shows

Recorded by 6 registrars between 1990 and 2025, ranked in 33 years of that period.

Its highest recorded position is #5, first reached in 2014.

It held a top-100 place in 29 years, 28 of them consecutive.

Its largest count from any one registrar is 3,422 births, registered in England and Wales in 2013.

1 registrar ranked it inside their own top 10.

Its record falls into 2 separate stretches, with a longest absence of 3 years.

A second registrar first ranked it in 1996, and 34 years separate the first registrar to record it from the last.

Every figure here is counted from the seven official registrars Namewise holds. A position is only ever a place within the list that published it, and a record that thins or stops is a fact about what registrars printed — never about how many children received the name.

Poppy was ranked #5 in England and Wales · Girls in 2014. These are the names immediately either side of it on that published list — a fact about the registrar's own output, not a similarity judgement.

Where to go next

Records with a comparable body of evidence, so the catalogue can be read outward from this one. Each group states the rule it was selected by.

Next in the catalogue

The records either side of this one alphabetically.

Poppi · #444, 27y
Poppie · #296, 30y
Poppy-Grace · #2328, 17y
Poppy-Mae · #859, 23y

A comparable record

Records held by the same 6 registrars, over a similar number of ranked years, whose highest position is closest to this one. A similar body of evidence — never a claim that the names themselves are alike.

Hunter · #5, 30y
Ivy · #5, 31y
Willow · #5, 30y
Cooper · #4, 29y

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Records whose earliest ranking in Namewise's registrar data also falls between 1990 and 1999.

Hunter · #5, 30y
Millie · #5, 30y
Willow · #5, 30y
Alfie · #4, 30y

Comparisons involving Poppy

Existing comparison pages where Poppy and another name were ranked in the same published list, in the same years, on the same scale. Each has its own evidence; none of them says the names are alike.

Longest shared records

Names ranked alongside Poppy in the same published list across at least 25 years.

Nicola vs Poppy
In 1996 they stood at #87 and #92 in England and Wales · Girls, 5 places apart; by 2025 they were #4201 and #7.
Nicola · Poppy · 30 shared years, 1996–2025 · Started together, ended far apart
See the 2025 England and Wales ranking
Poppy vs Stacey
In 1996 they stood at #92 and #97 in England and Wales · Girls, 5 places apart; by 2025 they were #7 and #2138.
Poppy · Stacey · 30 shared years, 1996–2025 · Started together, ended far apart
See the 2025 England and Wales ranking
Poppy vs Leanne
In 1996 they stood at #92 and #88 in England and Wales · Girls, 4 places apart; by 2025 they were #7 and #2006.
Poppy · Leanne · 30 shared years, 1996–2025 · Started together, ended far apart
See the 2025 England and Wales ranking

Closest long-running positions

Names that stayed close to Poppy within one registrar's list over many years. A gap measured inside that list, never across registrars.

Freya vs Poppy
Across 30 shared years in England and Wales · Girls, Freya and Poppy averaged 8.1 places apart, ending at #6 and #7.
Freya · Poppy · 30 shared years, 1996–2025 · Closest over the longest run
See the 2025 England and Wales ranking
Isabella vs Poppy
Across 30 shared years in England and Wales · Girls, Isabella and Poppy averaged 8.6 places apart, ending at #10 and #7.
Isabella · Poppy · 30 shared years, 1996–2025 · Closest over the longest run
See the 2025 England and Wales ranking
Sophia vs Poppy
Across 30 shared years in England and Wales · Girls, Sophia and Poppy averaged 8.9 places apart, ending at #13 and #7.
Sophia · Poppy · 30 shared years, 1996–2025 · Closest over the longest run
See the 2025 England and Wales ranking

Order changes

Pairs where Poppy and another name exchanged position in a published list, taken as the final meaningful change.

Sophie vs Poppy
In 2013, Poppy moved ahead of Sophie in England and Wales · Girls — #9 and #13 the year before became #9 and #7.
Sophie · Poppy · 30 shared years, 1996–2025 · One moved ahead of the other
See the 2013 England and Wales ranking
Charlotte vs Poppy
In 2017, Poppy moved ahead of Charlotte in England and Wales · Girls — #12 and #13 the year before became #12 and #8.
Charlotte · Poppy · 30 shared years, 1996–2025 · One moved ahead of the other
See the 2017 England and Wales ranking
Poppy vs Abigail
In New Zealand · Girls, Poppy moved into the top 50 at #27 in 2020 as Abigail fell out of it to #58, having been #30 the year before.
Poppy · Abigail · 19 shared years, 2005–2023 · One took the other's place near the top
See the 2020 New Zealand ranking

Compared inside England and Wales lists

Pairs involving Poppy measured in England and Wales's own published lists — the registrar that recorded Poppy at its highest position.

Poppy vs Claire
In 1996 they stood at #92 and #90 in England and Wales · Girls, 2 places apart; by 2025 they were #7 and #1362.
Poppy · Claire · 30 shared years, 1996–2025 · Started together, ended far apart
See the 2025 England and Wales ranking

England and Wales overview→

Poppy and the names beside it

Two names in the same published list are measured on the same scale, in the same year, by the same registrar — so these are positions that genuinely passed each other, not a similarity judgement. Drawn from the 2,577 names with a recorded popularity standing (common, familiar, uncommon), so a name outside that set could have passed Poppy without appearing here.

Poppy moved ahead of

Alma
In 2005 they stood at #443 and #443 in Republic of Ireland · Girls; by 2006 that had become #272 and #764.
Carmel
In 2005 they stood at #511 and #511 in Republic of Ireland · Girls; by 2006 that had become #272 and #764.
Linda
In 2005 they stood at #511 and #317 in Republic of Ireland · Girls; by 2006 that had become #272 and #764.
Bernadette
In 2004 they stood at #511 and #511 in Republic of Ireland · Girls; by 2005 that had become #256 and #689.

Moved ahead of Poppy

Maya
In 2000 they stood at #496 and #576 in Republic of Ireland · Girls; by 2001 that had become #369 and #204.
Mila Compare
In 2010 they stood at #70 and #84 in New Zealand · Girls; by 2011 that had become #77 and #31.
Rosie
In 2014 they stood at #100 and #106 in Republic of Ireland · Girls; by 2015 that had become #135 and #91.
Éala
In 2021 they stood at #106 and #177 in Republic of Ireland · Girls; by 2022 that had become #124 and #91.

Moved the opposite way to Poppy

Aoife
Between 1990 and 2025 in Republic of Ireland · Girls, Poppy went from #517 to #105 while Aoife went from #7 to #34.
Audrey
Between 1990 and 2025 in Republic of Ireland · Girls, Poppy went from #517 to #105 while Audrey went from #168 to #885.
Eileen
Between 1990 and 2025 in Republic of Ireland · Girls, Poppy went from #517 to #105 while Eileen went from #112 to #443.
Elaine
Between 1990 and 2025 in Republic of Ireland · Girls, Poppy went from #517 to #105 while Elaine went from #31 to #608.

Moved the same way as Poppy

Abigail Compare
Between 1990 and 2025 in Republic of Ireland · Girls, Poppy went from #517 to #105 and Abigail from #380 to #115.
Alice
Between 1990 and 2025 in Republic of Ireland · Girls, Poppy went from #517 to #105 and Alice from #110 to #41.
Anna Compare
Between 1990 and 2025 in Republic of Ireland · Girls, Poppy went from #517 to #105 and Anna from #66 to #26.
Caoimhe
Between 1990 and 2025 in Republic of Ireland · Girls, Poppy went from #517 to #105 and Caoimhe from #86 to #31.

Meaning & Origin

Taken directly from the English word for the red flower.

VerifiedSource: Behind the Name, Online Etymology Dictionary.Confidence: high.

English, from Old English popæg, ultimately from Latin papaver

VerifiedSource: Behind the Name.Confidence: medium.

Other names with a researched meaning and origin →

Where Poppy is officially recorded

6 official registrars have recorded Poppy, between 1990 and 2025, in 33 of those 36 years. Each registrar publishes for its own population on its own methodology, so the positions below are each one country's own ranking and are not comparable with one another.

Registrar	Recorded	Years	Its own highest position
Republic of Ireland	1990–2025	29	#89 in 2024
England and Wales	1996–2025	30	#5 in 2014
Northern Ireland	1998–2024	26	#27 in 2021
New Zealand	2005–2023	19	#27 in 2020
New South Wales, Australia	2009–2025	17	#44 in 2024
Scotland	2024	1	#24 in 2024

Its high point came 10 years earlier in England and Wales (2014) than in Republic of Ireland (2024).

No registrar recorded it for 3 years after 1992; it appears again in 1996.

Variants

No spelling variants or nicknames recorded yet.

Similar Names

No similar names recorded yet for this name.

Similarity is a demonstration score — see methodology.

Spelling

Spelling simplicity

Calculated directly from the name's spelling — see Name Characteristics above.

No commonly used alternate spellings recorded.

Pronunciation

POP-ee/ˈpɒpi/

Syllables: 2
Ease: easy

VerifiedSource: Behind the Name.Confidence: medium.

Where Poppy Is Recorded

National statistical agencies have recorded Poppy in these places. This shows where the name is used — not where it comes from, and not that it carries particular cultural significance there.

New South Wales, AustraliaEngland and WalesNorthern IrelandScotlandRepublic of IrelandNew Zealand

Notable Usage

No safely-sourced notable usage recorded for this name yet.

Sibling & Surname Compatibility

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Poppy

Poppy at a glance

What stands out in Poppy's record

Overview

Popularity

What the data shows

Popularity journey

Poppy across 5 official records

Poppy by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Poppy appears in

What the record shows

Names published alongside Poppy

Where to go next

Next in the catalogue

A comparable record

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Comparisons involving Poppy

Longest shared records

Closest long-running positions

Order changes

Compared inside England and Wales lists

Poppy and the names beside it

Poppy moved ahead of

Moved ahead of Poppy

Moved the opposite way to Poppy

Moved the same way as Poppy

Meaning & Origin

Where Poppy is officially recorded

Variants

Similar Names

Spelling

Pronunciation

Where Poppy Is Recorded

Notable Usage

Sibling & Surname Compatibility

Poppy at a glance

What stands out in Poppy's record

Poppy across 5 official records

Poppy by decade in England and Wales · Girls

Poppy appears in

What the record shows

Names published alongside Poppy

Where to go next

Next in the catalogue

A comparable record

Also first recorded in the 1990s

Comparisons involving Poppy

Longest shared records

Closest long-running positions

Order changes

Compared inside England and Wales lists

Poppy and the names beside it

Poppy moved ahead of

Moved ahead of Poppy

Moved the opposite way to Poppy

Moved the same way as Poppy