From the flower, Old English dægesēage meaning 'day's eye'; also a nickname for Margaret.
Daisy is one of the loveliest examples of a flower name becoming a personal name in English. The flower’s name comes from Old English daegeseage, "day’s eye," because the blossom opens with the morning light. As a given name, Daisy has also long served as a pet form of Margaret, since the French marguerite means both the name Margaret and the oxeye daisy flower.
That double origin gives Daisy a richer history than its cheerful simplicity first suggests. In the Victorian era, when floral symbolism and the language of flowers flourished, Daisy became a natural choice for a girl’s name, suggesting innocence, freshness, and plainspoken charm. Literature helped deepen its associations.
Daisy Miller, in Henry James’s novella, became an emblem of youthful American spontaneity set against European social codes. Later, Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby gave the name a more elusive and glittering literary life, mixing beauty with fragility, wealth, and moral ambiguity. These two famous Daisys alone show how flexible the name can be as a cultural symbol.
Though it can sound sweet and pastoral, Daisy has never belonged only to the nursery. Its use has risen and fallen with changing tastes, sometimes dismissed as quaint, then revived as vintage and radiant. In recent decades it has returned strongly in English-speaking countries as parents rediscover botanical names that feel familiar but not heavy.
Daisy still carries sunshine and simplicity, yet its literary history gives it surprising complexity. It is a name that blooms easily on the ear while holding more character than its petals might imply.