From the English word posy, a small bouquet of flowers, used as a charming nature name.
Posey is an English name derived from "posy" — a small bunch of flowers, the word itself a contraction of "poesy," meaning poetry, which was the custom of attaching verses to bouquets in medieval and Renaissance England. A posy was thus simultaneously a gift of flowers and a gift of words, making the name carry a double inheritance of natural beauty and literary expression. The word appears in the nursery rhyme "Ring Around the Rosie" ("a pocket full of posies"), embedding it in the earliest stratum of English childhood culture.
As a given name, Posey has roots in 19th-century America, where it appeared more frequently as a Southern family name or surname transferred to given-name use. It has the character of a name discovered on a faded quilt or in a Civil War-era letter — affectionate, floral, and entirely American in its cheerful informality. Parker Posey, the American actress celebrated for her sharp comedic intelligence and her roles in Christopher Guest's ensemble films, is the name's most prominent modern bearer and gave it a considerable cultural moment in the 1990s indie film world.
Posey sits in interesting company today alongside Fleur, Blossom, and Clover — names that are unambiguously nature-derived without being botanical in a heavy-handed way. It is playful without being silly, vintage without being fusty, and short enough to carry its own nickname without needing one. For parents drawn to old-fashioned charm with a light touch, Posey is a name that smells faintly of a summer garden.