Frederico
Masculine · “peaceful ruler”
Frederico is the Portuguese form of a Germanic name that has been carried by more European rulers than almost any other. Italian and Spanish write it Federico, without the first r; Portuguese keeps both. That single letter is the difference between the two commonest Latin forms of the name, and it has been there for a thousand years.
How old is the name Frederico?
Frederico first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Frederico alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 800 people named Frederico are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Frederico most popular?
Frederico peaked in 1951, reaching #1683 nationally. See the whole 1951 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From a Germanic compound of peace and power to Frederico
The story of Frederico
Federico Fellini gave English a word without meaning to. In his film about a gossip reporter drifting through Rome at night, released at the start of the 1960s, the reporter has a photographer friend who rides a scooter, shoves a camera into people's faces and is named Paparazzo. Fellini said afterwards that he had taken the name from an old Italian travel book and liked the sound of it — something buzzing, like an insect. Within a few years the plural was in every European language as the word for a photographer who chases the famous, and it is now in more dictionaries than the film is in libraries.
Meaning
peaceful ruler
The name is a Germanic compound of two ordinary words, one for peace and one for power or rule, put together the way early Germanic names nearly always were. It traveled south with the Lombards and the Franks and became a royal name in Italy, Spain and Portugal as well as in Germany, which is why every western European language has a version of it. Portuguese kept the consonant cluster the Germanic original had. Italian smoothed it away, and Federico is what a language does to a foreign name it has decided to keep.
How the name formed
- a Germanic compound of peace and power
- carried into Italy and Iberia by Germanic rulers
- Federico in Italian and Spanish, Frederico in Portuguese
- brought to America with southern European migration
- an American peak at the middle of the last century
Related forms: Federico · Federico · Friedrich · Frederick
Pronouncing Frederico
fred-eh-REE-koo
Four syllables in Portuguese with the stress on the third, and a final vowel that closes towards oo. English speakers say fred-uh-REE-ko, which every bearer accepts.
Nicknames for Frederico
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 boys named
- 195420 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1683reached in 1951
- Change vs 2022
- −11.1%8 in 2024, from 9
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.
Frederico in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Federico in Italian — same name
- Federico in Spanish — same name
- Friedrich in German — same name
- Frederick in English — same name
Fredericos among us
people named Frederico 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
Frederico 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
- It is instantly recognizable across four European languages without changing a letter.
- Fred and Rico are both available, and they belong to completely different registers.
- It carries a serious European history and a serious film-maker without being weighed down by either.
- Federico is far commoner in America and the first r will be dropped constantly.
- Four syllables is long for an English-speaking playground, and it will be shortened whether or not you choose the short form.
- The spelling identifies a Portuguese-speaking family, which may be exactly right or may not.
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Frederico
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Fredericos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Frederico are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Frederico in 2025?
- Frederico is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Frederico with classmates?
- Frederico will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More F names
The most-given names starting with F, all years combined.
Frank#513 · Fred#1932 · Francis#420 · Frederick#435 · Floyd#2230 · Francisco#322 · Franklin#359 · Fernando#387
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Frederico? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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