Meaning & Origin
A botanical plant name author abbreviation for botanist Emanuel Blanche (1824-1908).
Blanche is a girl's and boy's baby name of Old French origin, from the Old French and Medieval Latin blanche meaning 'white' or 'fair,' derived from the Germanic blank. It was a common name among medieval European nobility.
Blanche was a staple of late Victorian and Edwardian America, then retreated to a certain vintage obscurity. Blanche DuBois — Tennessee Williams' unforgettable heroine of A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) — gave the name a complex, tragic grandeur. 'I have always depended on the kindness of strangers' is among the most quoted lines in American theater, ensuring Blanche will never entirely disappear from cultural memory.