Azalea

April in a southern garden, whole hillsides going coral and magenta at once — that's the color this name carries. Azalea comes from the Greek azaleos, meaning dry, a word that seems to betray the lushness of the shrub itself, though botanists will tell you the plant's preference for well-drained, almost parched soil explains the root. The flowering shrub names a blaze of brief, concentrated beauty, and the name follows suit.

The rapper Iggy Azalea nudged the name into broader American awareness around 2012, arriving at the same moment parents were reaching past Rose and Lily toward botanical choices with more syllables and more edge. Azalea climbed through the 2010s on that double current — pop culture and floral fashion — and now rests at rank 358. It's still distinctive without being strange, the kind of name that gets noticed at school pickup without requiring explanation.

Three syllables with a Z in the middle: a-ZAY-lee-uh, that buzzing consonant giving it lift before the soft landing. It pairs naturally with the romantic Annabelle or the longer Julianna, and nicknames come easily — Zay, Lea, Lia. The girl who gets this name tends to be the one who tends the class terrarium with genuine attachment, who notices when the tulips open three days before anyone else does.