Why is it that only women have flower names?  Why don’t we name people after trees?  Maple or Oak would be wonderful names, I think.  Well, we do have Willow, although not very often.  So many flower names for girls, Lily and Rose and Violet but not Tulip.  Why on earth not, I wonder? In other cultures they name people after flowers we would not consider.  For example Greeks call girls Carnation and I knew a girl from the Carribean islands who was called Hyacinth. I knew a Bulgarian named Petunia too.  Hortensia is only for Francophones.  Some flowers don’t lend themselves to this sort of thing.  Iris is lovely but not Geranium, surely.  I always think of a Geraniums as so thrifty and economical somehow.  To name a child after a Geranium would condemn her forever to count her change and to make her serve two egg omelettes rather than three egg ones.  Lilac would be wonderful and Freesia and crocus.  Too seasonal?  But we have Holly.  Holly but no Mistletoe.  Very mysterious.  Poppy and Daisy but no Buttercup.  Laurel and Myrtle.  Oh, I forgot that the Greeks name girls after other trees too.  I knew a girl called Apple tree and one called Lemon tree.  Of course it helps that the “tree”notion is contained in the single word-Milia, Lemonia.  We should be brave and adopt these names(within reason, of course).  Perhaps not Sunflower or Dandilion