Franklin
Masculine · “a free landholder”
Franklin is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 141,728 boys against 778 girls since 1880. See Franklin as a girl 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 was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Franklin alive today was born around 1948, making them about 77 years old. About 77,500 people named Franklin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Franklin most popular?
Franklin peaked in 1933, reaching #33 nationally. Today it ranks #359, 326 places below that high. See the whole 1933 chart.
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
- 1933 — Franklin D. Roosevelt takes office
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 19335,363 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #33reached in 1933
- Change vs 2022
- +15.4%909 in 2025, from 788
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.
Franklin in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Ohio.
Franklins among us
people named Franklin are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 1,879 born in 2025 was named Franklin
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 Stanley test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Franklin's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Stanley climbed just as high around 1915, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Stanley's path sketches the road Franklin is walking now.
Franklin 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
Where Franklin is headed
Franklin should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Franklin beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Franklin in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
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
Masculine · #359 in the U.S.
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 77,500 people named Franklin are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Franklin in 2025?
- Franklin ranks #359 among US boy names in 2025, with 909 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Franklin?
- About 1 in every 1,879 US boys born in 2025 was named Franklin — 909 in all.
- Will my child share the name Franklin with classmates?
- Franklin will almost certainly be the only one in school.
- What explains the spikes and dips on Franklin's chart?
- Franklin climbed after 1933 — Franklin D. Roosevelt takes office.
Ranked beside Franklin
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Titus#358 · Spencer#360 · Bryce#357 · Jaylen#361 · Cristian#362 · Briggs#356 · Joaquin#355 · Anderson#363
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Franklin? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Franklin and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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