Florence
A feminine name of Latin origin referring to the city of Florence and meaning "blossoming" or "flourishing".
Name Census estimates that about 38,074 living Americans carry the first name Florence. It sits at #435 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Florence today is around 68 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Florence births was 1918 (11,350 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Florence. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Florence with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Florence is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 1,454 boys registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Florence is about 68 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Florences were born before 1968.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Florence have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
38K
~ 1 in 9,002 Americans
Peak year
1918
11,350 babies that year
Average age
68
years old
2024 SSA rank
#435
Tracked since 1880
Census
Florence in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 62,186 people with the first name Florence, which placed it at #791 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#791
National first-name rank
People counted
62K
62,186 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
20.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Florence
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Florence is White at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Black (19.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Florence described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Florence at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.6% · 42,662
- Black or African American19.1% · 11,903
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.8% · 3,624
- Hispanic or Latino3.5% · 2,201
- Two or more races2.0% · 1,250
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 546
Gender
Gender distribution for Florence
Out of the 339,743 babies given the name Florence since 1880, 99.6% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Florence as a male name
- Ranked #11,328 in 2024
- 6 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1925 (45 births)
Florence as a female name
- Ranked #435 in 2024
- 711 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (11,318 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Florence appears almost entirely female. Of the 62,185 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Florence: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Florence from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 88,628 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Florence by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Florence during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Florences live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois recorded the most babies named Florence, while Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 4,893 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Florence
The name Florence has its origins in the Latin language and is derived from the word "Florens," which means "blooming" or "flourishing." It is a feminine name that has been in use since ancient Roman times.
Florence can be traced back to the Roman era, where it was used as a surname or cognomen for families or individuals associated with the cultivation of flowers or the floral trade. The name gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in Italy, where it was closely associated with the city of Florence, which was known for its cultural and artistic renaissance.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Florence can be found in the hagiography of Saint Florentina, a 7th-century martyr from Hispania. Another notable early bearer of the name was Florence of Worcester, an English monk and chronicler who lived from around 1064 to 1118.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Florence. Among them are Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the renowned English nurse who is considered the founder of modern nursing; Florence Griffith Joyner (1959-1998), an American track and field athlete who set world records in the 100m and 200m sprints; Florence Pugh (born 1996), a British actress known for her roles in films like "Little Women" and "Midsommar"; Florence Welch (born 1986), the lead singer of the English indie rock band Florence and the Machine; and Florence Chadwick (1918-1995), an American swimmer who was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions.
The name Florence has also been associated with literary figures, such as the English novelist Florence Marryat (1833-1899), and historical figures like Florence Harding (1860-1924), the First Lady of the United States during her husband Warren G. Harding's presidency.
Across different cultures and time periods, the name Florence has maintained a sense of beauty, grace, and resilience, often associated with the blooming of flowers and the flourishing of artistic and cultural movements.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Florence
People
Florence + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Florence as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Florence: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Florence?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 38,074 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Florence going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 9,002 US residents.
Is Florence a common name?
We classify Florence as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 339,743 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Florence most popular?
The single biggest year for Florence was 1918, when 11,350 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Florence is about 68 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Florence in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 62,186 people with the name Florence, or 20.59 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #791 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Florence in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Florence?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Florence appears almost entirely female. Of the 62,185 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Florence?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Florence is White at 68.6%. The next largest groups are Black (19.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.8%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Florence most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Florence in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.6% (42,662 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Florence in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Florence a female name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Florence in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Florence still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Florence in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Florence can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many Americans are named Florence?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.