Flower Family History

English: nickname from Middle English flo(u)r ‘flower blossom’ (Old French flur from Latin flos genitive floris). This was a conventional term of endearment in medieval romantic poetry and as early as the 13th century it is also regularly found as a female personal name. In the US it may also be a translation of a name in another language meaning ‘flower’ such as German Blum or Dutch Bloem.

English: metonymic occupational name for a miller or flour merchant or perhaps a nickname for someone with a pale complexion from Middle English flo(u)r ‘flour’. This is in origin the same word as in the previous paragraph with the transferred sense ‘flower pick of the meal’. Although the two words are now felt to be accidental homophones, they were not distinguished in spelling before the 18th century.

English: occupational name for an arrowsmith from Middle English floer ‘arrow maker’, an agent derivative of Middle English flō ‘arrow’ (Old English flān).

Welsh: Anglicized form of the personal name Llywarch of unexplained etymology.

English: variant of Floor.