English 'Florence' comes via French from Latin Florentia, meaning 'flourishing' — the Romans named their new colony auspiciously, and the word shares its root with 'flower', 'flora', and 'flourish'.
A city in central Italy, capital of Tuscany, renowned as the birthplace of the Renaissance.
English 'Florence' derives via Old French from Latin 'Florentia', meaning 'flowering' or 'flourishing'. The city was founded as a Roman colony in 59 BCE under Julius Caesar, and the name reflects the standard Roman practice of giving auspicious names to new settlements. The Latin name derives from 'florens', the present participle of 'florēre' (to flower, flourish), from 'flōs' (flower), from PIE *bhleh₃- (to bloom, blossom
Florence is one of the rare cities whose English name and native name are almost unrecognizably different. 'Florence' and 'Firenze' both come from Latin 'Florentia', but French kept the 'l' while Tuscan Italian underwent rhotacism (l → r) and other shifts. The personal name Florence also derives from the same Latin word, meaning 'flourishing'.