Dahlia

Dahlia is the flower first, the name second. Swedish botanist Anders Dahl lent his surname to the showy Mexican blooms in 1789, and the dahlia became Mexico's national flower, cultivated in every shade from cream to near-black. The name followed the flower into English use in the nineteenth century, appearing in Trollope and Wodehouse. In American charts, Dahlia has been climbing since 2006 and now sits in the top 250 — riding the floral-name wave that brought back Violet, Iris, and Hazel. Two syllables of velvet and open garden. A name like a late-summer bouquet: lush, a little vintage, wholly alive.