Camellia is the name of the flowering shrub, which Linnaeus named after the Jesuit botanist Georg Joseph Kamel, so the name means "camellia flower"; it also echoes Camila, "attendant at a sacrifice". Dumas's novel The Lady of the Camellias gave the flower a romantic aura. Camellia rose from number 5176 in the United States in 2000 to number 1547 in 2024 and ranks number 1676 in 2025 with 123 girls.