Fun Facts About the Name Butterfly
- 10 babies named Butterfly: U.S. records list 10 babies given the name Butterfly from 1880 through 2025.
What Does the Name Butterfly Mean?
Butterfly is an English word name, used as a feminine given name, that comes from the English noun for the insect. The noun descends from Old English buttorfleoge, a compound of buttor "butter" and fleoge "fly." The second element is clear; the reason for the "butter" element is uncertain. One common explanation links "butter" to the yellow color of some butterflies; another links it to old beliefs that butterflies took butter or milk. The name's literal sense is the insect itself. Ideas such as transformation or freedom are symbolic associations attached to butterflies, not part of the word's etymology.
Butterfly Name History & Origins
Butterfly is a word name: its use as a personal name comes from the ordinary English noun, not from an older personal name. The noun passed through Middle English buterflie before the modern form butterfly. In English, the name belongs to the modern use of nouns as given names rather than to the inherited stock of saint names or Germanic compound names.
In Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly (1904), the Japanese heroine Cio-Cio-San (from chōchō, "butterfly") is called Butterfly; the title uses the English word as a translation of her Japanese name. That is a famous operatic association, not the origin of Butterfly as an English given name. The Japanese word for butterfly is unrelated in origin to the English word.
How Popular is the Name Butterfly?
Butterfly has historically been an exceptionally rare given name in the United States, remaining well outside the national mainstream. It saw its highest recorded annual births in 2003. Its best rank was #16,195 in 2003.
U.S. name popularity from 1880-2025, based on SSA data. Rank shows how the name compares with other names - lower numbers mean greater popularity. Births shows how many babies received the name each year.
| Year | Rank | Births | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | #17,517 | 5 | 0.0003% |
| 2003 | #16,195 | 5 | 0.0003% |
Name popularity over more than a century, based on Social Security Administration data. Gaps in the chart indicate years when the name does not appear in the published records.
Most Popular Girl Names That Start with B
How the Name Butterfly Shapes Your Personality and Life?
You can go to great heights and equally great depths. You are emotional and fixed in your opinions. You are hospitable, sentimental, often psychic, sometimes moody. You are ruled by love and the lack of it and feel a need to be encouraged and appreciated. Emergencies may raise your intuitive abilities in order to resolve conflict or situation. You become very creative under the pressure, and have quite original ideas to make the best out of it.
Creative and outgoing, you are always looking for an opportunity to show your abilities, especially before audience. You are very flexible and like to feel appreciated. You are looking for chances to mix with others socially and to communicate your ideas. You like to talk and can easily relate to different cultures and concepts. The biggest challenge for you is uncertainty. Easily getting bored, you can move from one job to another, switch projects and lovers. The high creative force can lead you either to happiness or unhappiness. If you understand your goals, if you can make major decisions in life and follow it directly and straight up without worry and uncertainty, you are able to achieve great heights.
✦ Butterfly's Deeper Meaning & Tips for Parents Discover Butterfly's symbolic numbers and practical tips for choosing a name that complements your child's birth date.