Pop, Pops or Poppet? However you say Poppy, the story is hers

Where the name Poppy comes from

Poppy is one of the plant names, straight from the English word for the flower. The word goes back to Old English popæg, which itself comes from the Latin papaver — the name botanists still use for the poppy genus today. So unlike many names that travelled through several languages and changed meaning on the way, Poppy has meant exactly one thing for over a thousand years: the red flower.

In Britain the flower carries a second, deeper meaning. After the First World War, the red poppies that grew on the battlefields of Flanders became the symbol of remembrance, made famous by John McCrae's 1915 poem "In Flanders Fields". Every November the paper poppy appears on coats across the country. For many families the name quietly holds both things at once: a cheerful summer flower and a sign of care and memory. Some parents choose it for a November birthday, or because a great-grandparent served; others simply love the colour.

The name was used in Victorian and Edwardian times along with other flower names, then faded for much of the twentieth century. Its comeback belongs to the wider return of short, sunny botanical names in Britain, and in England and Wales it was fast: from a rare choice it climbed through the 2000s and spent much of the 2010s in or around the top ten for girls. It is still a familiar, well-loved name in British classrooms — common enough that nobody misspells it, distinctive enough to feel bright.

Part of its charm is that it sounds young without sounding invented: it has a long history in English, yet it never feels formal or stiff. A Poppy at six and a Poppy at sixty both seem perfectly natural.

There is no fixed name day for Poppy in the calendar, so her big day in the book is simply the one you give it.

Nicknames and ways to call Poppy

• Poppy — The full name is already friendly, so it's what most people use every day — at school, at the door, on the cover.
• Pop — The quick one-syllable version shouted across a playground or a busy kitchen.
• Pops — A playful, slightly cheeky form that siblings and grandparents tend to grab.
• Poppet — An old British term of endearment meaning a little darling; with this name it feels almost made to measure.
• Poppy-seed — A tiny-person nickname for babies and toddlers, often outgrown and then remembered fondly.
• Popsicle — More common in American households, used teasingly, usually on hot days or by an older brother or sister.