Frederick
Masculine · “Peaceful ruler”
Frederick is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 266,060 boys against 1,105 girls since 1880. See Frederick as a girl name
Frederick the Great put guards on a potato field to make people want to steal the crop. Prussian peasants would not eat the things; the king planted a royal field, posted soldiers around it with instructions to be visibly slack, and the potatoes disappeared into gardens across the country.
How old is the name Frederick?
Frederick was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Frederick alive today was born around 1948, making them about 77 years old. About 136,000 people named Frederick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Frederick most popular?
Frederick peaked in 1880, reaching #33 nationally. Today it ranks #435, 402 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Where it comes from
From Fridurih to Frederick
The story of Frederick
The name means peace and the kings who carried it spent their reigns at war. The Prussian line took it four times, fought Austria for a province and kept it, fought most of Europe at once and survived, and built a state whose defining institution was its army; the great one of them wrote a treatise against political cynicism as a young man and then conducted a reign that reads as an argument against it. There are still potatoes left on his grave by visitors, which is a gentler memorial than the record supports. The story about the guarded field is told everywhere in Germany and the documentary evidence for it is thin.
Meaning
Peaceful ruler
Two Germanic elements: one about peace, one about rule or power. The compound is transparent in German, where both halves are still recognizable words, and completely opaque in English, which borrowed the whole thing and none of the parts.
How the name formed
- Fridurih
- Friedrich
- Frederick
Related forms: Friedrich · Frederic · Federico
Pronouncing Frederick
FRED-rik
Two or three syllables depending on how carefully the middle one is said; most English speakers give it two. German gives all three and pronounces the ch as a rasp.
Nicknames for Frederick
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 boys named
- 19514,984 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #33reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- +12.3%728 in 2025, from 648
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.
Frederick in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Friedrich in German — same name
- Frederic in French — same name
- Federico in Italian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas. International figures from Office for National Statistics. Sources
Fredericks among us
people named Frederick are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,346 born in 2025 was named Frederick
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Frederick has held the top-100 across 8 different decades — it has never depended on fashion, and names like that read the same at any age.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Frederick is headed
Frederick 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.
Frederick beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Frederick in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three short forms in three quite different registers.
- The meaning is concrete and can be given to a child in two words.
- It has been in continuous English use for a thousand years.
- The record carries it for girls in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- Frederic and Fredrick are both current and spelling it out is a permanent job.
- It is a long formal name and other people will shorten it immediately.
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What they receive
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Frederick
Masculine · #435 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Fredericks are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 136,000 people named Frederick are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Frederick in 2025?
- Frederick ranks #435 among US boy names in 2025, with 728 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Frederick?
- About 1 in every 2,346 US boys born in 2025 was named Frederick — 728 in all.
- Will my child share the name Frederick with classmates?
- Frederick will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Frederick
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Moshe#435 · Travis#434 · Malik#437 · Lewis#433 · Raiden#432 · Mario#438 · Jasai#439 · Sylas#440
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Frederick? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Frederick and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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