Florence
Meaning
flourishing
Goes by Flo, Florrie, Flossie
Famously borne by sprint legend Florence Griffith Joyner.
The story
Florence comes from the Latin florentia, flourishing, and it is also the English name of the Italian city on the Arno. The two meet in one person: Florence Nightingale, named for the city where she was born in 1820, whose fame as the founder of modern nursing sent the name around the English-speaking world. America inherited that Victorian devotion, and Florence entered the 1890s as one of the most popular girls' names in the country. The twentieth century wore it down slowly, decade by decade, until by midcentury it had gone quiet. Then the revival: since the 2000s the line has been climbing again, part of the broader return of gilded grandmother names like Cora and Hazel, helped along, it is tempting to think, by the singer Florence Welch. Flourishing again, in other words, exactly as advertised.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Florence peaked in the 1890s and the 1900s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
536 people · the #12,742 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 333,333 · median age 33
Among people named Florence living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 35 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Florence
People given the name Florence in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1940 to 1979. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Florence deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Florence truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Florence fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Names like Florence · Nicknames for Florence · Chinese American baby names · Names of sports stars
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