Freda
Feminine · “peace”
Freda is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 42,527 girls against 26 boys since 1880.
Freda is peace with the German spelling simplified. Frieda is the German form; Freda is what English-speaking countries wrote when they wanted the same name to look like their own.
How old is the name Freda?
Freda was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Freda alive today was born around 1927, making them about 98 years old. About 13,500 people named Freda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Freda most popular?
Freda peaked in 1897, reaching #161 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 6,385 places below that high. See the whole 1897 chart.
Where it comes from
From frid to Freda
The story of Freda
Germanic naming built compounds from two ordinary words, and frid was among the commonest, producing Friederike, Elfriede and Gottfriede. Once several were in use together, shortening was inevitable, and Frieda served all of them. English-speaking families simplified the spelling to Freda, which also functions as a short form of the Old English Ælfthryth and the Norse Fríða. It rose in America through the 1900s and peaked around 1920.
Meaning
peace
From the Germanic frid, 'peace' or 'protection' — the element that ends Siegfried and Wilfred and begins Frederick. In modern German the word Friede still means peace, so the name has never stopped being transparent to its own speakers.
How the name formed
- frid
- Friederike
- Frieda
- Freda
Related forms: Frieda · Fríða · Frida
Pronouncing Freda
FREE-duh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Freda, Frieda and Frida are said identically in English.
Nicknames for Freda
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 19181,025 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #161reached in 1897
- Change vs 2022
- +41.7%17 in 2025, from 12
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.
Freda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Frieda in German — spelling variant
- Fríða in Norse — related form
- Frida in Swedish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: New York.
Fredas among us
people named Freda are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Freda
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Freda
- #6546
- Freda on the 2025 chart
- #938
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Freda went to 17 girls in 2025, but Freeda is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 22, which makes it the 938th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,608 places above the chart.
- Freda17
- Freeda5
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 94,545 for Freda itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Freda 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
Freda beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Freda 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 transparent, undisputed and about as good as a meaning gets.
- The simplified spelling reads as English while keeping the German sound.
- It has living cousins in German, Swedish and Icelandic.
- Three spellings are established and none is dominant across the English-speaking world.
- It is period-coded to the early twentieth century.
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Freda
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Fredas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 13,500 people named Freda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Freda?
- Freda is the most-used spelling in US records — 17 of the 22 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Freeda.
- How popular is the name Freda in 2025?
- Freda ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Freda?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Freda — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Freda with classmates?
- Freda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Freda
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Freda? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Freda and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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