Fraidy
A childish alteration of the word "afraid", implying timidity or fearfulness.
Name Census estimates that about 1,061 living Americans carry the first name Fraidy. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Fraidy today is around 17 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Fraidy births was 2024 (52 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Fraidy. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • Fraidy is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 17 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 323,048 Americans
Peak year
2024
52 babies that year
Average age
17
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,084
Tracked since 1982
Census
Fraidy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 776 people with the first name Fraidy, which placed it at #14,967 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#14,967
National first-name rank
People counted
776
776 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
99.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Fraidy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fraidy is White at 99.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (0.6%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (0.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Fraidy described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Fraidy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White99.1% · 769
- Hispanic or Latino0.6% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Popularity
Fraidy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Fraidy from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 383 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Fraidy remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Fraidy by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Fraidy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Fraidys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Fraidy
The name Fraidy has its origins in the Old English language, dating back to the 7th century. It derives from the word "frædian," meaning "to fear" or "to dread." In those early times, it was likely given to children born during times of great turmoil or conflict, with the hope of instilling courage and bravery.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Fraidy can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. It mentions a warrior named Fraidy who fought alongside King Alfred the Great in the late 9th century against the Viking invaders.
In the 11th century, a monk named Fraidy of Malmesbury gained recognition for his scholarly works on astronomy and mathematics. He is believed to have been born around 1020 and died in 1095.
During the Middle Ages, the name Fraidy gained some popularity among the nobility. A notable figure was Lady Fraidy de Montfort, who lived in the 13th century and was known for her charitable works and her support for the arts.
In the 16th century, a French explorer named Fraidy Cartier is recorded as being the first European to map the St. Lawrence River in present-day Canada. He was born around 1491 and died in 1557.
Another significant individual with the name Fraidy was Fraidy von Hutten, a German knight and poet who lived in the early 16th century. He was a prominent figure in the Protestant Reformation and is remembered for his satirical writings against the Catholic Church. He was born in 1488 and died in 1523.
People
Fraidy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Fraidy as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Fraidy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Fraidy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,061 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Fraidy going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 323,048 US residents.
Is Fraidy a common name?
We classify Fraidy as "Rare". It ranks above 90.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,077 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Fraidy most popular?
The single biggest year for Fraidy was 2024, when 52 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Fraidy is about 17 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Fraidy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 776 people with the name Fraidy, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,967 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Fraidy in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Fraidy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Fraidy leans strongly female. 766 people counted with this name were female (98.5%), compared with 12 male bearers (1.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Fraidy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fraidy is White at 99.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (0.6%) and American Indian/Alaska Native (0.3%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Fraidy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Fraidy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 99.1% (769 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Fraidy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Fraidy a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Fraidy in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Fraidy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Fraidy in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Fraidy can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Fraidy as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Fraidy, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.