Flora is a feminine given name of Latin origin meaning flower, ultimately derived from the Latin word flos, which had the genitive florus. Flora was a fertility goddess of flowers and springtime in Ancient Rome.
 “Flora and the Zephyrs” by John William Waterhouse. | |
| Gender | Feminine |
|---|---|
| Origin | |
| Word/name | Latin |
| Meaning | flower |
| Other names | |
| Related names | Fflur, Fionnaghal, Fionnuala, Fiore, Fiorenza, Fleur, Flo, Flor, Flòraidh, Flore, Florence, Florencia, Florentina, Florette, Florinda, Florrie, Flossie |
Feminine variants include Florrie or its Scottish Gaelic equivalent Flòraidh. Flora was also used as an English translation for the etymologically unrelated Scottish Gaelic Fionnaghal, a variant of the Irish Gaelic name Fionnuala.[1]
Other feminine variants include the Dutch Floor and Floortje, the English and French Florence, the French Fleur, Flore, and Florette, the Hungarian Flóra, the Italian Fiore and Fiorenza, the Occitan Flòra, the Sami Florá, the Portuguese and Spanish Flor and Florinda, the Spanish Florencia, and the Portuguese Florência, and the Welsh Fflur.[2]
Usage
editThe name came into regular use by the 1700s[3] in countries across Europe and elsewhere. The name was among the one hundred most popular names for girls in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s and remained among the top one thousand names used for girls through 1972 and then declined. It has again risen in use in recent years and has been among the one thousand most used names for American girls since 2019.[4] It is among the top 150 names for newborn girls in Canada, where it ranked 124th on the popularity chart in 2021, with 211 uses.[5] It is also in regular use in the United Kingdom, France, and Hungary.[6]
Notable people
edit- Flora A. Brewster (1852-1919), American physician, surgeon
- Flora Bridges (1859–1912), American college professor
- Flora Brovina (born 1949), Kosovar poet and pediatrician
- Flora Carabella (1926–1999), Italian actress
- Flora Chan (born 1970), Hong Kong actress
- Flora Coquerel (born 1994), French model
- Flora D. Darpino (born 1961), American judge advocate general
- Flora Eldershaw (1897–1956), Australian writer
- Flora Frate (born 1983), Italian politician
- Flora Kaai Hayes (1893–1968), Hawaiian politician
- Flora Karimova (born 1941), Azerbaijani singer
- Flora Haines Loughead (1855–1943), American writer, farmer, miner
- Flora Hommel (1928–2015), American childbirth educator
- Flora E. Lowry (1879–1933), American anthologist
- Flora MacDonald (1722–1790), Scottish Jacobite
- Flora MacDonald (1926–2015), Canadian politician
- Flora Mace (born 1949), American glass artist
- Flora Martínez (born 1977), Colombian actress
- Flora Martirosian (1957–2012), Armenian singer
- Flora Montgomery (born 1974), British actress
- Flora Murray (1869–1923), British doctor and suffragette
- Flora Nwapa (1931–1993), Nigerian author
- Flora Purim (born 1942), Brazilian singer
- Flora Redoumi (born 1976), Greek hurdler
- Flora Robson (1902–1984), British actress
- Flora Madeline Shaw (1864–1927), Canadian nurse and nursing teacher
- Flora Annie Steel (1847–1929), British writer
- Flora Stevenson (1839–1905), British educational reformer
- Flora E. Strout (1867-1962), American teacher, social reformer
- Flora Thompson (1876–1947), British writer
- Flora Tristan (1803–1844), French writer and feminist
- Flora Twort (1893–1985), British painter
Fictional characters
edit- Flora, in the animated TV show Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors
- Flora, one of the three good fairies in the 1959 Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty
- Flora, in the TV series Thomas and Friends
- Flora, the maid and daughter of Ice tribe head in Fire Emblem: Fates
- Flora, in the Italian television series Winx Club
- Flora, nickname for the character Nera Briscoletti in the video game Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
- Flora Baumbach, in the novel The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
- Cure Flora, in the anime series Go! Princess PreCure
- Dr. Flora, an ant and the colony's doctor in the 1998 Disney/Pixar animated film A Bug's Life
- Flora "Lola Flora" S. Borja-de Leon, a character from the ABS-CBN's action drama series FPJ's Ang Probinsyano
- Flora Mejia, in the Netflix series Grand Army
- Flora Northrop, in the Main Street book series by Ann M. Martin
- Flora Poste, in the novel Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons
- Flora Reinhold, in the video game series Professor Layton
- Flora the Frog, in the television series The Caribou Kitchen
Notes
edit- ^ Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). Oxford Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. p. 101. ISBN 0-19-861060-2.
- ^ Campbell, Mike. "The name Flora". Behind the Name.
- ^ Griffin, Jennifer (2011). 1,107 Baby Names That Stand the Test of Time. Workman Publishing Company, Inc. pp. 95–96. ISBN 978-0-7611-8016-6.
- ^ "Popular Baby Names". www.ssa.gov.
- ^ "First names at birth by sex at birth, selected indicators". www150.statcan.gc.ca. Statistics Canada. 9 May 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
- ^ Campbell, Mike. "Popularity for the name Flora". Behind the Name.
See also
edit- Flora (surname)
- Flora (disambiguation)
- Flore (given name)
- Fleur (given name)
- Floortje
- Flower (name), a surname and given name
- Flowers (name), a surname
- Tzitzak, Khazar princess and Byzantine Empress whose name meant "flower"
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