A male name. Latin Florentius, from florens ‘blooming'. There was a 3rd-C Roman martyr named Florentius, and also a Gaulish saint whose relics were preserved at Saumur. The name also occurs in the Old French romances, and was not uncommon in England in the Middle Ages. Lyford 1655 gives Florence as a man’s name, but it does not seem to have survived the 17th C in England (Shelley’s s., Percy Florence, was named after the city of his birth), though it has continued in use in Ireland (e.g. the inimitable ‘Flurry' Knox), where it was used to represent various native names.

Florencius Curia Regis Rolls 1201-3, Feudal Aids 1284, 1316. Florence Hundred Rolls 1273.

A female name. Latin Florentia f. of Florentius (see man’s name), Florence was used in the Middle Ages about equally as a man’s and a woman’s name, but whereas it died out as a man’s it survived in use as a woman’s name, e.g. Florence Vavzor 1621, and Florence Dombey in Dickens’s Dombey and Son (1846-8). But it was rare until it was given a fresh impetus by the fame of Florence Nightingale (1820-1912), who herself received the name because she was born in Florence. In the later part of the 19th C it became very common and was often shortened to Florrie, Flo or Flossie.

Florentia Curia Regis Rolls 1196-1219. Florencia Feudal Aids 1346. Florence Close Rolls 1378, Lyford 1655.

M. This Irish name, ‘so common among the peasantry’—though often as Flory, ‘is intended for Finghin, or Fineen (fair offspring); also for Flann, Fithil, and Flaithri’, Yonge. As equivalent to Latin Florentius, it has been obsolete for centuries.

F. Latin Florentia, from florens, ‘flourishing,’ is the name of a late C6-early 7 virgin saint more generally known—in contradistinction, doubtless, to the fifteen male saints Florence or Florentius—as Florentina, ‘the scion of an illustrious... family, and the only sister of... Bishops Leander, Fulgentius, and Isidore of Seville,’ who became an abbess (Benedictines). ‘The recent revival is chiefly owing to the name having been given to English girls born at the Italian city so called’ and, during and after the Crimean War, to the fame of Florence Nightingale (Yonge).

A female name. It is said to have been Anglicised from Finin or Fineen, an Irish name used by men, especially among the McCarthy Reaghs and McCarthy Mores. A correspondent of N. Q. says Florence is certainly a female name, but not until it had been for many centuries a male one; and he adds, ‘We have a whole line of Counts of Holland chiefly bearing the name of Floris, Florens, or Florence. The earliest instance of the use of Florence as a female name which I have met with is in the case of Florence, daughter of Hugh de Courtenay, of Devon, and Margaret Carmino. Her father was killed at Tewkesbury, May 14, 1471.’ Mr. Cumec O’Lynn says, ‘As Finin or Fineen was translated Florence by the English language, it expressed the same thing or quality which Finin did in the Irish. The English version was probably derived from Flora, the goddess of flowers; it may also have meant white or fair. The name in Irish is derived from fionn, pale, white, fair. Finin or Fineen is a diminutive of fin or fionn; perhaps it was the pet-name.” Conf. N. Q. 4th S. viii. 334; ix. 21; x. 300,478.

Latin (feminine) - Flower, fig. beauty.

A Latin name, meaning: Flourishing.

A Latin name, meaning: Flowery or flourishing.