Magnolia
- Pronunciation
- [Mag-no-li-a]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Flower
- Origin
- French
About the Name Magnolia
Magnolia descends from the genus name of the magnolia flower (Magnolia), itself named in the 18th century after French botanist Pierre Magnol (1638–1715), who first established the modern botanical classification of the magnolia genus. The magnolia tree is native to Asia and the Americas, and its large fragrant white-and-pink flowers became one of the iconic floral symbols of the American South.
The name has been used as a personal name in American naming since the late 19th century, particularly in the American South where the magnolia carries strong regional cultural associations (Magnolia is the state flower of Mississippi and Louisiana, and the iconic magnolia-tree-lined Southern plantation aesthetic gave the name a distinctive Southern-American register). The contemporary American Magnolia surge is part of the broader 21st-century vintage and nature-name wave.
Notable bearers include the fictional Magnolia of various Southern American novels and films, and the influential 1999 Paul Thomas Anderson film Magnolia (which gave the name a substantial late-20th-century cultural anchor). Magnolia climbed from outside the US top 1000 in 2005 to the US top 200 girls' rank by 2018 and the top 100 by 2022. The name's appeal is its layered American-Southern register combined with four flowing syllables — the in-built flower-and-tree imagery, the regional cultural anchor, and tonal versatility from rural-Southern to upwardly-mobile-American. Common nicknames Maggie (now itself a popular standalone name), Mag, Lola (back-end shortening), Nola, and the rare Maggie-flo each carry distinct registers. International variants are minimal since the name is essentially English-language; the original Latin Magnolia and Italian magnolia are the closest historical anchors.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Magnolia
US Popularity History (2013–2025)
Annual US births named Magnolia by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 2,233 girls named Magnolia (girl rank #124 that year).
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Magnolia Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Magnolia the strongest states are Vermont, Alaska, Tennessee.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vermont | #64 | 22 |
| 2 | Alaska | #85 | 25 |
| 3 | Tennessee | #113 | 663 |
| 4 | Oregon | #127 | 257 |
| 5 | West Virginia | #129 | 102 |
| 6 | Maine | #137 | 60 |
| 7 | Arkansas | #148 | 263 |
| 8 | Montana | #148 | 44 |
| 9 | Delaware | #149 | 26 |
| 10 | North Carolina | #151 | 737 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Jersey | #510 | 141 |
| 2 | New York | #504 | 345 |
| 3 | Massachusetts | #465 | 129 |
| 4 | Arizona | #422 | 154 |
| 5 | California | #417 | 815 |
| 6 | Connecticut | #379 | 78 |
| 7 | Nevada | #346 | 62 |
| 8 | New Mexico | #344 | 34 |
| 9 | Texas | #334 | 1,055 |
| 10 | Minnesota | #328 | 173 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Magnolia in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Magnolia?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Magnolia to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Magnolia against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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