Fraida
Feminine · “Joy”
Fraida is Yiddish for joy, and it is one of the names that survived the destruction of the world that made it. Its American record is almost entirely recent and almost entirely Hasidic, and its peak is 2021.
How old is the name Fraida?
Fraida first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Fraida is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Fraida are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Fraida most popular?
Fraida peaked in 2021, reaching #4014 nationally. Today it ranks #5410, 1,396 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From freyd to Fraida
The story of Fraida
Yiddish women's names came in two kinds: Hebrew names from the Bible, and vernacular names built from Yiddish and Germanic words. Freyde belongs to the second and was ordinary across eastern Europe, often paired with a Hebrew name in the Ashkenazi custom of giving both. The Holocaust destroyed the communities where these names were everyday, and the ones that survived did so through the Hasidic and Haredi communities that rebuilt in Brooklyn, Monsey, Lakewood and Jerusalem. Fraida's American peak in 2021 records who is having children now rather than when the name is from; the name itself is centuries old.
Meaning
Joy
From Yiddish freyd, joy or gladness, cognate with German Freude and English froh. The feminine name Freyde or Fraida is formed directly on it. The reading is settled. It belongs to the set of Yiddish women's names built on ordinary good words — Freyde joy, Golde gold, Sheyne beautiful, Bluma flower — rather than on Hebrew.
How the name formed
- freyd
- Freyde
- Fraida
Related forms: פֿריידע · Freyde · Freude
Pronouncing Fraida
FRAY-dah
Two syllables, stress on the first. Yiddish Freyde has the same diphthong; the American spelling with ai writes it more transparently for an English reader.
Nicknames for Fraida
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1978
- Most girls named
- 202136 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4014reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- −23.3%23 in 2025, from 30
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Fraida in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- פֿריידע in Yiddish — transliteration
- Freyde in Yiddish — spelling variant
- Freude in German — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York, New Jersey.
Fraidas among us
people named Fraida are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 69,881 born in 2025 was named Fraida
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Lisett test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Fraida's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lisett climbed just as high around 1988, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lisett's path sketches the road Fraida is walking now.
Fraida sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Fraida beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Fraida in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled, short and about as good as a meaning gets.
- It is a genuine Yiddish name with real continuity, not a modern revival.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- Fraida, Fraidy, Freyde and Frieda are four spellings across two languages.
- The affectionate form Fraidy is one letter from an English word about fear.
- It marks the bearer's community clearly, which is either the point or something to weigh.
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What they receive
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Fraida
Feminine · #5410 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Fraidas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Fraida are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Fraida in 2025?
- Fraida ranks #5410 among US girl names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Fraida?
- About 1 in every 69,881 US girls born in 2025 was named Fraida — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Fraida with classmates?
- Fraida will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Fraida
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aina#5410 · Sherry#5410 · Kathia#5410 · Taj#5410 · Analicia#5410 · Divya#5410 · Halimah#5410 · Leo#5410
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Fraida? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Fraida and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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