'anemonella' originates from New Latin, specifically the word 'anemone' with the diminutive suffix '-ella', where 'anemone' referred to the windflower and '-ella' meant 'little'.

'anemonella' was formed in modern botanical Latin to describe a small or diminutive anemone-like plant, and eventually became the modern English word 'anemonella'.

Initially, it meant 'a small anemone', and this meaning has remained in its current use as the name of a genus of small, anemone-like plants.