Meaning and background
The story behind Rosemary
Rosemary has two documented given-name explanations: a combination of Rose and Mary, or a reference to the herb. The reference traces the herb word through Latin sea-dew vocabulary and dates personal-name use to the nineteenth century. Those routes should remain distinct rather than merged into one translation. A dog owner may honor two people, a single namesake, or the plant while the historical account preserves those different naming possibilities.
- Origin
- Combination of Rose and Mary, or an herb-associated given name; the herb word has a separate Latin history. Source
Try Rosemary out loud
Everyday moments“Rosemary, come here!”
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About Rosemary
Recorded as a dog’s name
Rosemary appears in 4 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/ɹoʊzmɛɹi/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/ɹoʊzmɛɹi/ · primary stress on syllable 1R OW1 Z M EH2 R IY0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.