Heather
English (Scottish and northern English dialect): Heather, the low evergreen shrub with small purple, pink or white flowers (Calluna vulgaris)
Pronounced HETH-ər (the "th" sounds like the one in "the")
Where the name comes from
- English (Scottish and northern English dialect)Heather, the low evergreen shrub with small purple, pink or white flowers (Calluna vulgaris)Middle English hathir, from a reconstructed Old English form *hæddreHeather is a plant name used as a girl's name. The word shows up in English about 700 years ago as hathir. It was a Scottish and northern English dialect word for the shrub. The spelling probably shifted under the influence of the word heath. Still, the two words are likely not related. Where the word came from before that is uncertain. It may have been Celtic.
Heather across traditions
- American naming. Heather was rare as a girl's name in the US before 1935. It then became one of the defining names of its generation. It was a top-15 name for American girls born from 1971 to 1989 and peaked at No. 3 in 1975.
- English surnames. Heather is also an English family name, but it formed separately from the given name. It can mean someone who lived on a heath. It can also come from the village of Heather in Leicestershire, England.
Forms in other languages
Hether
Heather in letter-number systems
Hebrew, Greek and other traditions gave every letter a number, and read meaning into the totals. These are the counts, computed; the readings are inside the Innerverse.
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