A female name. (French Françoise, Italian Francesca, Spanish Francisca, German Franziska) from Italian Francesca, f. of Francesco (see Francis). The earliest record of the name Francesca seems to be Francesca da Rimini (d. about 1288); the French Françoise appears about the same time. In England the name, like its m. equivalent, does not appear until the Tudor period, the earliest example noted being Lady Francis Brandon (b. 1517) d. of Mary Tudor and mother of Lady Jane Grey. It was a favourite name with the aristocracy in the Elizabethan period, being spelt in the same way as the m. name and like it abbreviated to Frank. The distinctive spelling came in in the 17th C (e.g. Francesse Carpenter baptized at St Giles Cripplegate 1644). Lyford 1655 says: ‘Frances see Francis in men’s names’. The pet-form Fanny, from an earlier Franny (cf. Biddy from Bridget, Kit from Christopher), came in at the beginning of the 18th C, e.g. Pope’s attack (1733) on John, Lord Harvey under the name of Lord Fanny. Francie is also now used as an abbreviation of Frances.

F.; FRANCIS, m. ‘Mary Tudor,... in memory of her brief queenship of France,’ or as a compliment to King Francis of France, ‘christened her first child Frances—that Lady Frances Brendon... who had numerous name-sakes among the maidens of the Tudor court’; these girls generally spelt it Francis. ‘The masculine came in at the same time, and burst into eminence in the Elizabethan cluster of worthies—Drake, Walsingham, Bacon; but it did not take a thorough hold of the nation, and was much left to the Roman Catholics. It was not till Frank had been restricted to men that it took hold of the popular mind, so as to become prevalent,’ Yonge. Francis derives from High German Frang, ‘a free lord,’ and the Franci, ‘the free men’, were ‘a confederacy of German tribes’, who, ‘after carrying on frequent wars with the Romans,... at length settled permanently in Gaul, of which they became the rulers under their king Clovis, A. D. 496’ (Blakeney). There have been many very illustrious men called Franciscus, Francisco, Franz, François, and Frank, and not a few such women called Francisca or Francesca, Frances or Françoise; and Français, ‘a Frenchman,’ is obviously the same word.

Teutonic (feminine) - Indomitable.

A Teutonic name, meaning: Free.