The botanical name refers to a variety of small shrubs with pink or white flowers which commonly grow in rocky areas.

The spelling was altered in the 18th century due to associations with the English word heath, denoting a location where the plant heather often grows.

Heather has been in use as a name for girls throughout the Anglosphere since the 1800s, though it was most common in the United Kingdom and in British Commonwealth countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

An infant by the name of Miss Heather Campbell arrived on a ship from Glasgow in New York, with her mother.

The name steadily increased in use through the 1950s and 1960s but spiked in popularity after the Walt Disney Company television movie Guns in the Heather aired in the United States in 1969.