Fredrik
Masculine · “Peaceful ruler”
Fredrik is Frederick in Swedish and Norwegian, with the middle vowel dropped the way Scandinavian languages drop it. The Germanic underneath is a compound of peace and ruler, which sounds like a contradiction and is in fact a job description.
How old is the name Fredrik?
Fredrik first appears in US birth records in 1924 — 101 years ago. The typical Fredrik alive today was born around 2006, making them about 19 years old. About 500 people named Fredrik are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Fredrik most popular?
Fredrik peaked in 1954, reaching #2044 nationally. Today it ranks #5399, 3,355 places below that high. See the whole 1954 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Frithuric to Fredrik
The story of Fredrik
Frithuric was a common Frankish and Germanic name and became one of the great royal names of Europe: Frederick Barbarossa, Frederick II of Sicily, and the Prussian kings culminating in Frederick the Great. Scandinavia used Fredrik heavily — Denmark and Norway have had ten kings called Frederik, and Sweden had a Fredrik I. Norwegian and Swedish emigration brought the spelling to America in the nineteenth century, thickest in Minnesota and the Dakotas, and the American peak in the 1950s belongs to the descendants of those families rather than to new arrivals.
Meaning
Peaceful ruler
From the Germanic Frithuric, from frithu, peace, and rīk, ruler or power. The reading is settled and both elements are transparent. The sense is not a ruler who is peaceful but one who keeps the peace, which is how early medieval kingship described itself. Swedish and Norwegian Fredrik drops the e of the German Friedrich.
How the name formed
- Frithuric
- Friedrich
- Fredrik
Related forms: Fredrik · Fredrik · Friedrich · Frederik · Frederick · Frédéric
Pronouncing Fredrik
FRED-rik
Two syllables, stress on the first. Swedish gives the r a slight trill and the e a purer value; the American saying is close enough to pass unremarked.
Nicknames for Fredrik
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
- 1924
- Most boys named
- 201821 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2044reached in 1954
- Change vs 2024
- +6.3%17 in 2025, from 16
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.
Fredrik in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Fredrik in Swedish — same name
- Fredrik in Norwegian — same name
- Friedrich in German — related form
- Frederik in Danish — spelling variant
- Frederick in English — related form
- Frédéric in French — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Minnesota.
Fredriks among us
people named Fredrik are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was named Fredrik
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Fredrik
- #5399
- Fredrik on the 2025 chart
- #802
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Fredrik went to 17 boys in 2025, but Fredrick and Fredric are the same name said out loud. Together the 3 spellings went to 126, which makes it the 802nd most-given boys’ name of the year — 4,597 places above the chart.
About 1 boy in 13,556 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 100,475 for Fredrik 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
The Addis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Fredrik's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Addis climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Addis's path sketches the road Fredrik is walking now.
Fredrik 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
Fredrik beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Fredrik in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Germanic meaning is settled and dignified.
- Fred is available as one of the plainest English short forms.
- It is spelled the same in Swedish and Norwegian.
- Frederick is the standard English spelling and will be written for it.
- Fredrik, Frederik, Fredrick and Friedrich are four spellings across four languages.
- Fred is strongly dated in American ears, which colors the whole name.
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Fredrik
Masculine · #5399 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Fredriks 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 Fredrik are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Fredrik?
- Fredrik is one of 3 recorded spellings. Fredrick is the more common one — 94 births in 2025 against 17 for Fredrik.
- How popular is the name Fredrik in 2025?
- Fredrik ranks #5399 among US boy names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Fredrik?
- About 1 in every 100,475 US boys born in 2025 was named Fredrik — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Fredrik with classmates?
- Fredrik will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Fredrik
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frazier#5399 · Franz#5399 · Demetrio#5399 · Rolan#5399 · Rayvon#5399 · Riddick#5399 · Laramie#5399 · Soloman#5399
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Fredrik? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Fredrik and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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