About Dame Florence

What’s in a name? Dame is not being used as an honorific as it is with Dame Florence Cardell Oliver, Australia’s first woman cabinet minister. No, our Dame Florence uses Dame as a first name. As far back as the thirteenth century it was a respectful nickname for a woman. Shakespeare used the word 'dame' to mean 'lady, mistress or woman of rank'. Given that in recent times it has been used as a nickname for Damien, we can confidently call Dame a gender neutral first name.

The surname Florence derives from Florence, Italy, which was originally called Florentia in Latin and means ‘blooming or flowering’. Florence is also a given name derived from the French. Dame Florence, however, is not French. And she’s no saint, something she has in common with Florence Nightingale. 

Although a pseudonym, Dame maintains she has an identity of her own. She professes royal heritage but probably has none. She claims to be twenty-one but is obviously much older. Dame Florence also claims to have appeared in films alongside Dame Edna Everage but that’s probably not true. What is true is that she loves running naked in the moonlight through fields of white arum lilies.

Having produced children and done her motherly duty, Dame has now moved on to an independent life free from mundane responsibilities. She lives in Melbourne but travels the world at every opportunity. She has sipped absinthe with artists in Montmartre, waded through the Trevi Fountain in full evening dress, breakfasted on Danish pastries with the Royals in Copenhagen, practised yoga meditation high in the Swiss Alps and had many other extravagant adventures.