![]() St. Francis receives the stigmata by Jan Claudius de Cock | |
Pronunciation | /ˈfrɑːnsɪs,ˈfræn-/ [1] [2] |
---|---|
Gender | Male |
Language(s) | French, Haitian Creole, Latin |
Name day | October 4 |
Origin | |
Language(s) | Latin |
Meaning | Freeman [3] |
Region of origin | Medieval Italy |
Other names | |
Related names | Franciscus, Francisco, Francesco, François, Franz, Franciszek, Francesc, Ferenc, Franco, Frans, Frank, Franklin, Frankie, Franky, Fritz |
Francis is an English, French, German, Dutch and Scandinavian given name of Latin origin.
Francis is a name that has many derivatives in most European languages. A feminine version of the name in English is Frances, or (less commonly) Francine. [4] (For most speakers, Francis and Frances are homophones or near homophones; a popular mnemonic for the spelling is "i for him and e for her".) The name Frank is a common diminutive for Francis, as is Frannie for Frances. Less common are the diminutives Fritz for Francis, and Franny and Fran for either Francis or Frances.
The name has relatively unclear origins but is thought to mean "free". Notably, the Germanic of the Franks gave their name to France and their characteristic national weapon was the francisca, a throwing axe. Francesco ("Free man", "Frank", "Frenchman", in medieval Italian) [5] was the name given to Saint Francis of Assisi (born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone) by his francophile father, whose wife, the mother of Francesco, was French, [6] celebrating his trade with French merchants. Due to the renown of the saint, the name became widespread in Western Europe during the Middle Ages in its different versions (Francisco, François, etc.). However, it was not regularly used in Britain until the 16th century as Francis. [7]
Related names are common in other Western European languages, in countries that are (or were before the Reformation) Catholic. Other non-European languages have also adopted variants of the name. These names include: