'Artemisia' originates from New Latin 'Artemisia', ultimately from Ancient Greek 'Artemisia', a woman's name associated with Artemis (the goddess) and historical figures such as Queen Artemisia of Caria.

'Artemisia' was used in Greek as a personal name; in Modern botanical Latin (coined by Linnaeus in the 18th century) the name was adopted as the genus name 'Artemisia' for a group of plants; thus the personal name became a scientific plant name.

Initially it was a proper personal name (of Greek origin), but over time it was applied as the scientific name for a genus of plants; the modern primary sense in botanical and common usage refers to that plant group.