Flora
Feminine · Latin roots · “Flower”
Flora is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 70,971 girls against 172 boys since 1880.
Flora is the Latin word for flower turned into a name, and it has been doing that job since Roman times, when the goddess Flora had her own spring festival, the Floralia. It traveled north as far as the Scottish Highlands, where it was adopted as the English counterpart of Gaelic Fionnghal. Two syllables, an open first vowel, and a soft ending it shares with Iona and Nora.
How old is the name Flora?
Flora was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Flora alive today was born around 1924, making them about 101 years old. About 20,000 people named Flora are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Flora most popular?
Flora peaked in 1880, reaching #68 nationally. Today it ranks #607, 539 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
From flos / floris (Latin, 'flower') to Flora
The story of Flora
The name begins with the Roman goddess Flora, whose domain was flowering plants and the coming of spring, honored at the Floralia in late April. Latin flos, floris passed into the Romance languages and the name stayed intact in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, while French shortened it to Flore. In the Scottish Highlands, Flora served as the English form of the Gaelic name Fionnghal, which is why it still shows up in Scottish records today. English-speaking use widened in the nineteenth century, when botanical names for girls were much in fashion and Flora arrived alongside Rose, Violet and Florence.
Meaning
Flower
From Latin flos, floris — flower. The same root gives English floral, flourish and florist.
How the name formed
- flos / florisLatin, 'flower'
- FloraRoman goddess
- Flora
Related forms: Flore · Flóra · Flora · Flora · Fiorella · Florence
Pronouncing Flora
FLOR-uh
Stress on the first syllable. The same in English, Italian and Spanish; the French Flore is one syllable, roughly 'flor'.
Nicknames for Flora
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19211,553 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #68reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- +20.1%483 in 2025, from 402
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Flora in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Flore in French — same name
- Flóra in Hungarian — spelling variant
- Flora in Italian — same name
- Flora in Spanish — same name
- Fiorella in Italian — related form
- Florence in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas. International figures from National Records of Scotland. Sources
Floras among us
people named Flora are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 3,328 born in 2025 was named Flora
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Flora is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Flora is headed
Flora looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 19% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Flora beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Flora in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Meaning is settled and immediately legible to English speakers — flower, from the same root as floral and florist.
- Spells and sounds the same in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, and needs only an accent in Hungarian.
- Short, phonetic, two syllables: rarely misheard and almost never misspelled once heard.
- Comes with established short forms — Flo, Florrie, Flossie — rather than requiring an invented one.
- An unbroken written record from Roman antiquity to Highland Scotland to the present.
- Flora is also an ordinary English noun: the flora of a region, and in medical writing gut or intestinal flora. Most people never make the connection, but it exists.
- Most Floras in the United States today belong to older generations, so the name can read as distinctly old-fashioned to some ears — which is precisely what is drawing it back into use.
- It sits close to Flor, Florence, Fiona and Nora, so expect the occasional correction on the phone.
- In Britain and Ireland, Flora is a widely sold brand of margarine — worth knowing if you have family or travel there.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Flora to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Flora? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Flora
Feminine · Latin roots · #607 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Floras are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 20,000 people named Flora are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Flora in 2025?
- Flora ranks #607 among US girl names in 2025, with 483 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Flora?
- About 1 in every 3,328 US girls born in 2025 was named Flora — 483 in all.
- Will my child share the name Flora with classmates?
- Flora will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Flora
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Loretta#606 · Brinley#608 · Rosalia#608 · Siena#610 · Mylah#604 · Alejandra#604 · Leyla#611 · Aliana#603
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Flora? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Flora and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle