Francis or Frances

[Deleted]

Francis is all male. Frances is female. Please use Frances.

[DanaScullyX]

Frances. No question.

[dreadpiratebuttercup]

Francis for a boy, Frances for a girl.

[Widget123]

Frances

[billyhorrible]

Is it a name you like or are you naming after a Francis?

In general I would say go with Frances, but personally I prefer being exact when honoring someone. For instance, we were going to use Loren as a middle name whether I had a boy or a girl because we were honoring my FIL, Loren.

[cabbagecabbage]

Sept 7, 2016 13:15:19 GMT -5 billyhorrible said:

Is it a name you like or are you naming after a Francis?

In general I would say go with Frances, but personally I prefer being exact when honoring someone. For instance, we were going to use Loren as a middle name whether I had a boy or a girl because we were honoring my FIL, Loren.

This. Even then, I might still go Frances since I can clearly see the namesake. If it's not after a Francis, no way.

[Deleted]

Francis is the middle name for DH, his dad, and his grandfather, so we wanted to honor that and use it as a middle name. His thought it that it should be spelled like his name is, I think using the female spelling would still honor that tradition.

[cosmicav]

I think the female spelling would still honor the person since the male and female versions of Frances/Francis sound pretty much the same.

[Deleted]

Sept 7, 2016 20:00:36 GMT -5 cosmicav said:

I think the female spelling would still honor the person since the male and female versions of Frances/Francis sound pretty much the same.

This.

[bromios]

So, my initial reaction was "Frances and Francis are the same name, just different genders, so use the right one," but if you have already used James as a mn for a daughter to honor someone male then I'm inclined to give you a pass on using Francis. Admittedly, James doesn't have as obvious a female counterpart, but still, I think it would actually be a little strange to honor one male person by using their name and then to honor another using a variant of their name.

Edit: And, btw, I think Stella James is a lovely, elegant name for a girl.

[sarahandeddie]

Frances is the female form of the name.