Franklin
Feminine · “a free landholder”
Franklin is given to boys far more often — 141,728 boys against 778 girls since 1880. See Franklin as a boy name
Franklin is a medieval English social rank that became a surname and then a first name. Chaucer put one on the road to Canterbury, and the portrait is the best short description of the class there is.
How old is the name Franklin?
Franklin first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Franklin alive today was born around 1958, making them about 67 years old. About 500 people named Franklin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Franklin most popular?
Franklin peaked in 1933, reaching #1513 nationally. See the whole 1933 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From frankeleyn to Franklin
The story of Franklin
Chaucer's Franklin is wealthy, hospitable and slightly anxious about status. His table is described as standing ready all day, his larder stocked with partridge and pike, and the poet says it snowed meat and drink in his house. He has been a sheriff and a member of parliament and is emphatically not a knight. That is the class precisely: money without birth, and the manners built to bridge the gap. Four centuries later an American printer with the same surname signed the Declaration, the treaty with France, the peace with Britain and the Constitution, invented a stove and a lightning rod, and declined to patent either of them on the grounds that he had benefited from other people's inventions and should return the favor.
Meaning
a free landholder
The word means a freeman holding land but not of noble rank, built on the same root as free with a French ending. The reading is settled and the social rank is well documented.
How the name formed
- frankeleyn
- Franklin
Pronouncing Franklin
FRANK-lin
Two syllables with the stress in front. Nothing in it invites hesitation.
Nicknames for Franklin
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
- 1914
- Most girls named
- 193619 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1513reached in 1933
- Change vs 2022
- +30.0%13 in 2024, from 10
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.
Franklins among us
people named Franklin are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Franklin sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- The meaning is settled and documented, with a medieval social rank behind it.
- Frank is available as a short form from the first day and needs no explaining.
- It has an unbroken record in American use going back to the start of the statistics.
- Two American presidents and one founder carry the name, which is a great deal of association to arrive with.
- In America it reads as belonging to an older generation, which is either the appeal or the obstacle.
- This spelling goes overwhelmingly to boys but is recorded for girls as well, so a form will occasionally guess wrong.
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What they receive
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Franklin
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Franklins are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Franklin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Franklin in 2025?
- Franklin is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Franklin with classmates?
- Franklin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More F names
The most-given names starting with F, all years combined.
Frances#318 · Florence#391 · Faith#254 · Felicia#5554 · Fannie#3342 · Faye#514 · Flora#607 · Freda#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Franklin? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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