Flora

(female) Name borne in Roman mythology by the goddess of flowers and the spring (a derivative of Latin flos ‘flower’, genitive floris). It is also the feminine form of the old Roman family name Florus, likewise derived from flos. Flora was little used in England before the 18th century, when it was imported from Scotland. In 1746 Flora Macdonald (1722–90) of Milton in South Uist helped Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape from there to the Island of Skye, disguised as a woman, after his defeat at Culloden. In fact, Flora was merely an Anglicized form of her Gaelic name, Fionnaghal, a variant of Fionnguala (see Fionnuala). However, her fame made the name Flora popular in the Highlands and elsewhere.