The origin of the name
France is a particular use of the place name
France, from the Medieval Latin
Francia, "land of the Franks"; the usual feminine of
francus, "
Frank", was
franca, conserved as first name in Italian (
Franca).
Initially,
France probably was a surname applied to someone from the oïl area when he was settled abroad (this is the origin of
France as family name); this is the case of
Marie de
France, living in England after 1150: "
Marie ai nom, si sui de
France" ("My name is
Marie and I'm from
France"). But the apparition of
France as first name is belated, because in Middle Ages the feminine form was
Franque.
France was used in the 19th c. as regressive derivate from
Françoise or even from
François (the masculine form), because Noël-François
Thibault wrote his name as Noël-France
Thibault, a habit inherited by his son, the writer Anatole-François
Thibault, best known by his pen name (
Anatole France).
Even coming directly from
francus, franca,
France is used as variant form of
Françoise, especially in WWI and especially in WWII by logical historical raisons (the parents who used
France for their daugther were using it as patriotic variant of Françoise and not only as country name).
Lumia
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