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[Facts] Re: France
in reply to a message by Ailis
I don't know what the average person in France would think of this today, but in 1939 at least one French woman named her daughter France, as that was the original birth name of the actress France Nuyen, who was born in Marseilles to a French mother and Vietnamese father:http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0638395/bioP.S. The comments section for the name France on this site say that France is quite common in France as part of the compound name "Marie-France". That was certainly true in the recent past, because if you Google "Marie-France" a great many examples of women with that name come up.

This message was edited 7/3/2009, 5:51 AM

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I live in French-speaking Canada (not Quebec, though), and France, and Marie-France are quite popular. I know several.
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Actually almost 30,000 women received this name in France in the last centuryAccording to the INSEE (Institut National de la Statistique et des Études Économiques) the name was used almost 30,000 times between 1900 and 2003. The site Tous les Prenoms uses statistics from the INSEE. It was used 20 times in 2003. It's use in France was first recorded in the 12th century according to tous les prenoms. According to some sources it may have owen it's use to the popularity of Saint Franca(whom the Frech called Sainte France) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franca_Visalta It was most popular between 1935 and 1950 especially in the form Marie-France.
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