French form of Azalea, from Greek 'azaleos' meaning dry; a flowering shrub name.
Azalie sits at the intersection of two distinct traditions. As a variant of Azalea, it draws from the Greek "azaleos," meaning dry — a reference to the plant's preference for well-drained soil — and entered the English-speaking world as part of the Victorian botanical naming craze that gave us Violet, Lily, and Iris. But Azalie also echoes the Hebrew Azaliah, found in the Old Testament as the name of a temple scribe whose son Shaphan read the forgotten Book of the Law aloud to King Josiah, giving the name a quiet weight of scholarly reverence.
In the American South, Azalie appeared as a given name in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly in Creole and Louisiana French communities where floral names carried both botanical and spiritual connotations. It never achieved mass popularity, which has kept it feeling genuinely rare rather than merely old-fashioned. French speakers would render it "ah-zah-LEE," lending it a musicality that the more common Azalea lacks.
Today Azalie occupies a sweet spot for parents drawn to vintage botanical names who want something less familiar than Violet or Rose. Its soft ending connects it to the wave of names like Rosalie and Natalie without being derivative of them. The name carries the scent of spring gardens and the gentle antiquarianism of a name that was always too lovely to stay forgotten forever.