No, the character Katniss states in the book that she was named after the plant, as I wrote below. But I agree that the
Kat- part makes this unknown plant seem more natural as a name to readers.
Slightly O/T, but a related thing I noticed is that many of the "good" characters were either named after plants -- Katniss,
Primrose,
Rue -- or had names that sounded vaguely nature-y --
Gale, Cinna, Haymitch.
(I've only read the first book and loved it. Am curious to see how the names develop in books 2 and 3!)