Jacinto

Jacinto is a Spanish and Portuguese form of the name associated with the hyacinth. Its history reaches back to Greek Hyakinthos, the name of the young man in the myth connected with Apollo and the origin of a flower. The exact plant imagined in ancient accounts need not be identical to the modern garden hyacinth.

Jacinta is the related feminine form, while Jacinto has an established masculine naming tradition. This makes it an example of a floral name for boys with a history older than current interest in nature names. Spanish and Portuguese give the written name different sounds, so the family's language matters when choosing a pronunciation. The botanical image and the classical story belong to the same wider name family.