Well, the association with the
Roman celebration seems logical.
The use of the name in
Europe seems to com from the Sicilian St
Rosalie, originally
Rosalia de' Sinibaldi. Based only reading of the Wikipedia page of the saint in a few languages, the only explanations I found for her name was that her mother was called
Rosa and that by folk etymology, the name
Rosalia is often understood as being a contraction of rosa (rose) and lilium (lily). However, it's quite possible that the association with flowers came later, and the name was actually a variation of germanic
Ros- names (by
Norman influence) or even another name entirely.
This message was edited 12/22/2019, 8:53 AM