Frances

From French, from Old French Franceise, feminine form of Franceis, from Late Latin Franciscus ("Frankish").

Full definition of Frances

(plural Francess)

c.1590 William Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost: Act III, Scene I:Armado. Sirrah Costard, I will enfranchise thee.Costard. O! marry me to one Frances: I smell some l'envoy, some goose, in this.
1883 Wilkie Collins, Heart and Science, Chatto and Windus, page 227:"My name is Frances. Don't call me Fanny!" "Why not?" "Because it's too absurd to be endured! What does the mere sound of Fanny suggest? A flirting dancing creature - plump and fair, and playful and pretty! - - - Call me Frances - a man's name, with only the difference between an i and an e. No sentiment in it, hard, like me."
1961 Janet Frame, Owls Do Cry, ISBN 072510029X, page 97:My other sisters had interesting names. There was Francie, that was Frances, and though she wore slacks and my father seemed angry with her, I thought she was some relation to Saint Francis, who, I believed, kept animals in his pocket and took them out and licked them, the way Francie licked a blackball or acid drop, for pure love.

1967, Eric A. Nordlinger, The Working-class Tories, page 236The malaise of French politics has commonly been interpreted as a product of a deep-seated conflict between the â€˜two Francesâ€™.