How popular is Florence?

[FlorenceWobbler]

DH and I were sold on Florence but agreed to keep it to ourselves till DD was born.

Then SIL has a surprise girl and DH has a meltdown over whether SIL would choose the name Florence so we agreed to tell her early, turns out it was on her shortlist and she agreed not to use it.

Since then I found out it's a more popular name In the UK than I thought (#19 for 2018, stupid USA baby centre had it at 900+) and I've fallen out of love with it a bit. It was important to me to choose a name that was recognizable but unusual enough to be special so I'm sad it doesn't have that quality after all, it's still a lovely name.

DH is livid I'd think of changing it after we 'stole' it from SIL but I don't want to be beholden to a name when DD isn't even here yet.

How popular is it really? Are there lots of Florence's in playgroups and classrooms?

I know three between 6 and 9 years old. Known as Flo, Florrie and Flossie respectively.

My niece is Florence. After she was born it seemed to get crazy popular. David Cameron called his daughter it etc

@popcorndiva Eugh, Cameron connotations too. Now I'm totally put off!

It is reasonably popular, however my DS has a 'number 19' name and I only know one other in his age range (who doesn't even attend his school), so if I'm honest I wouldn't worry and name her what you like.

TBH if I was SIL I would be mildly annoyed if I had been desperate to use it and didn't as an act of kindness then you guys didn't. However these things are short-lived and you should do what makes you happy and explain to SIL. Congratulations and good luck :)

It's not that common around here. I know lots of children 5yrs and younger and Isabella, Isabel/isobel, Sophia, Poppy are the more popular names. I don't know any young girls called Florence.

I think where you live plays a big role in how popular it is, as those statistics are not broken down. For example, my son's name was #66 the year he was born, which while in the top 100, is still fairly uncommon I would say. However, out of 22 children in his class, there are two others with the same name, as well as one in the year below, and I know of three others who have been born since my DS (who is six). So sometimes, even if you pick a less popular name, it doesn't mean it's particularly exclusive! That said, friends from other areas don't know of any children with my child's name, so I think it varies.

That's probably not very helpful, sorry! If it helps, I only know of one child called Florence, and I think it's a beautiful name 😊 We had it on our shortlist for our baby girl, but we let our DS pick her name in the end and we love what he has chosen! (Fortunately, as we hated the boy's name that he picked!)

I think its fairly popular depending on where you live but not popular like 2-3 in one class at school.

Where I am in the last couple of years I've met 2 under 5, worked with a lady in her early twenties and met a lot older ladies so it's definitely a come back name.

I'd use it.

I know 5 between the ages of 1-4. If you like it use it. You could pick number 300 and still end up with another one in DDs class. As a teacher I have seen this happen

Yup - know 2 Florence's - 6 + 4.

I have a 7 week old baby Florence. We adored the name no matter how popular. That being said we have only met one 8 year old Florence and no babies yet.

People's reactions have been lovely and to be honest the most common response has been "that was my granny's name" rather than "that is my daughter / niece's name"!

I only know one, aged 9, who's called Flossie/Floss most of the time.

I only know one, I wouldn't say it's that popular.

I've never met one, of any age!

Teacher here- never taught a Florence.
I know one that was a friends neice but that’s it.
And realistically no one is going to make the David Cameron connection.

I know one and when I met her, I thought it was a lovely and under-used name. I suppose it depends on where you live really. To me, the massively overused names are Olivia and Isla.

If you love the name you should use it regardless of rankings. With the exception of the top 5 maybe. But even if your child does come across others with the same name, it's not the end of the world is it? People are unique, names aren't.

Thanks for the comments everyone, I feel better about sticking with it now and if it turns out to be very popular here we'll just have to move accept it

I love Florence. It's relatively popular but nothing like Amelia, Olivia, Ava type of name.

It is my absolutely favourite girl's name and I have only met a few, despite coming into contact with hundreds of babies in my job.

I only know one. Olivia and Isla are the popular names in my area.

Last year it was the most popular it's been in the last 20 years, ranked 19th overall in England and Wales, about 1 in every 165 girls. So unlikely to be more than one in any given year group at school.

Very popular. But if you love it, use it. You may find you won’t come across any others and then you’ll regret it.

I work with children - there’s always one Florence in each group! Most of them are around age 6.

I wouldn't say it was very popular tbh. I know two aged 21 and 9.

I know 2, one is 9, the other 1. My DS's name was around 80th in the top 100 when he was born. I used it anyway thinking it was far enough out that we wouldn't meet another and he was in nursery with another boy with the same name. He's the only one in his school.

Tbh it doesn't really matter if you love the name. There's 50 people in my work and we have several names which are repeated, same shortenings are the same too including mine. It confuses the customers more than us!