Heather (given name)

Heather is a common English feminine given name.

Origin and meaning
The name Heather refers to a variety of small shrubs with pink or white flowers which commonly grow in rocky areas. The brush is native to Scotland and England, but it is more commonly found in Scotland due to its rocky territories. The name is derived from Middle English hather.

Heather has several other definitions. The most commonly known is as a reference to a color mixture; it is most often a pale shade of blue from blue itself to pink to even purple mixed with gray. However, many times it refers to any color that includes gray or gray streaks within it, such as what is known as heather fabric.

The masculine form of the name is Heath.

Popularity and variations
Newspapers.com records the use of "Miss Heather" in reference to a girl's name as early as 2 August 1852, in The New York Times. An infant by the name of Miss Heather Campbell arrived on a ship from Glasgow in New York, with her mother.

The American Social Security Administration's records show it to already be in use in 1935, though it was rare at the time coming in at #997, barely making the top 1000 names of that era. The name is currently popular among the people of Generations X and Generation Y. The name itself peaked in popularity at #3, in 1975.

Heather, though a name found primarily in English speaking countries, has other variants simply because of its definition as a flowering plant. However its foreign names often closely resemble other words with meanings so is difficult to distinguish a given variant's origin as arising from the flower, or from that of another word. For example, the name Heidi in German resembles Heidekraut, which is the German word for the Heather shrubs, though the name Heidi is usually thought to mean "of noble birth" (a diminutive of the name Adelheid). The 1988 dark comedy film, Heathers, satirized the name by associating it with "in-crowd" cliques of teen-age high school girls.

The name Erica actually has two meanings, one of which is related to the Heather plant whose Latin name is Ericaceae. Its other meaning of "ruler" is similar to that of the German meaning of Heidi. This leaves the impression that the shrub name and the meaning of "a noble" or "ruler" are similar, or it is a large coincidence.

Notable people

 * Heather Angel (actress) (1909–1986), English actress
 * Heather Angel (photographer) (born 1941), English photographer
 * Heather Armstrong (1975-2023), American blogger and internet personality
 * Heather M. Ferguson, professor, malaria vector biologist
 * Heather B. Gardner (born 1971), American hip-hop artist
 * Heather Bresch (born 1969), American business executive and CEO of Mylan
 * Heather Booth (1945), American civil rights activist, feminist, and political strategist
 * Heather Bown (born 1978), American volleyball player
 * Heather Brooke (born 1970), British-American journalist and freedom of information campaigner
 * Heather E. Bullock, American social psychologist
 * Heather Burge (born 1971), American basketball player
 * Heather Childers, anchor for Fox and Friends First
 * Heather Crowe (activist) (1945–2006), Canadian anti-smoking campaigner
 * Heather Dewey-Hagborg (born 1982), information artist and bio-hacker
 * Heather Donahue (born 1974), American actress
 * Heather Dubrow (born 1969), American actress and television personality
 * Heather Engebretson (born 1990), American lyric soprano
 * Heather Foster (born 1966), Jamaican-born American professional bodybuilder
 * Heather Gay (born 1974), American television personality, businesswoman and author
 * Heather George (1907–1983), Australian commercial photographer
 * Heather Graham (born 1970), American actress
 * Heather Headley (born 1974), Trinidadian singer and actress
 * Heather Hemmens (born 1984), American actress
 * Heather Hunter (born 1969), American entertainer
 * Heather Jones (born 1970), Canadian field hockey player
 * Heather Kozar (born 1976), American model Playboy's Playmate of the Month, January 1998
 * Heather Kuttai, (born 1969 or 1970) Canadian Paralympic shooter
 * Heather Kuzmich (born 1986), American fashion model and America's Next Top Model, Cycle 9 participant
 * Heather Langenkamp (born 1964), American actress
 * Heather Locklear (born 1961), American actress
 * Heather Mac Donald (born 1956), American political commentator, essayist, attorney, and author
 * Heather Marks (born 1988), Canadian model
 * Heather Matarazzo (born 1982), American actress
 * Heather McCartney (born 1962), American-British potter and artist, daughter of Linda McCartney and adopted daughter of Paul McCartney
 * Heather McDonald (born 1970), American stand-up comedian, actress and author
 * Heather Menzies (1949–2017), Canadian actress
 * Heather Mills (born 1968), British model and activist; the second wife of Paul McCartney
 * Heather Mitts (born 1978), American professional soccer player
 * Heather Morris (born 1987), American actress and dancer from Glee
 * Heather Moyse (born 1978), Canadian bobsledder and rugby union player
 * Heather North (1945–2017), American voice actress
 * Heather Nova (born 1967), Bermudian singer-songwriter and poet
 * Heather O'Reilly (born 1985), American soccer player
 * Heather O'Rourke (1975–1988), American actress
 * Heather Peace (born 1975), British actress
 * Heather Raffo (born 1970), American actress
 * Heather Cox Richardson (born 1962), American historian, author, and educator
 * Heather Shipley, American environmental engineer and academic administrator
 * Heather Small (born 1965), British singer
 * Heather A. Smith, American nurse and academic administrator
 * Heather Standring (born 1928), British illustrator
 * Dita Von Teese (born Heather Renée Sweet in 1972), American burlesque performer
 * Heather Thomas (born 1957), American actress
 * Heather Tom (born 1975), American actress
 * Heather Wallace (born 1961), Canadian squash player
 * Heather Watson (born 1992), British professional tennis player
 * Heather Whitestone (born 1973), Miss America winner
 * Heather Wilson (born 1960), American politician and university president

Fictional characters

 * Heather, the protagonist in the young adult novel The Faraway Lurs
 * Heather, a main character in the Canadian animated series Total Drama
 * Heather, a character from the game Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
 * Heather, a character in 1996 American black comedy movie The Cable Guy
 * Heather, a character from the Dreamworks 2006 3D computer-animated film Over the Hedge
 * Heather Badcock, a victim in Agatha Christie's 1962 novel, The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side.
 * Heather Campbell, the first love of Connor MacLeod, the main protagonist of the Highlander film franchise (not to be confused with Duncan MacLeod of the television series spinoff)
 * Heather Chandler, Heather Duke, and Heather McNamara, the eponymous clique from the 1988 teen film Heathers and the 2014 musical adaptation
 * Heather Dante, daughter of Tony Soprano's consigliere, Silvio Dante, on The Sopranos
 * Heather Farrell, a former character from the original Degrassi series
 * Heather Gushue, a character in the film Cyberbully
 * Heather Hart, a character in the novel Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick
 * Heather Haversham, fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Brookside
 * Heather Holloway, a character from the Netflix TV series Stranger Things
 * Lady Heather (real name Heather Kessler), a character in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
 * Heather Mason, the female protagonist in Silent Hill 3
 * Heather Owens, a character from Mr. Belvedere
 * Heather Scott, a character in the 1989 action comedy film Speed Zone
 * Heather Sinclair, a character in Degrassi: The Next Generation
 * Heather Stevens Williams, a character from the American soap opera The Young and the Restless
 * Heather Trott, a character from the British soap opera EastEnders
 * Heather Roth, a character on a TV series The Ranch
 * Heather Webber, character on the American soap opera General Hospital
 * Heather the Violet Fairy, from the children's book series Rainbow Magic
 * Heather Wold, the name of the Little Red-Haired Girl from Peanuts