Francis
A masculine name of Roman origin meaning "Frenchman" or "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 122,838 living Americans carry the first name Francis. It sits at #450 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (90.7% of registrations). The average person named Francis today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Francis births was 1918 (7,000 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Francis. 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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Francis with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
123K
~ 1 in 2,790 Americans
Peak year
1918
7,000 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2024 SSA rank
#450
Tracked since 1880
Census
Francis in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 138,483 people with the first name Francis, which placed it at #409 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
#409
National first-name rank
People counted
138K
138,483 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
45.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
74.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Francis
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Francis is White at 74.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.2%) and Black (7.6%). 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 Francis 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 Francis at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White74.1% · 102,679
- Hispanic or Latino9.2% · 12,714
- Black or African American7.6% · 10,511
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.1% · 8,505
- Two or more races2.0% · 2,832
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 1,242
Gender
Gender distribution for Francis
Francis leans heavily male at 90.7% of total registrations, but 29,710 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Francis as a male name
- Ranked #450 in 2024
- 693 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (6,347 births)
Francis as a female name
- Ranked #2,083 in 2024
- 92 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1919 (673 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Francis leans strongly male. 121,263 people counted with this name were male (87.6%), compared with 17,230 female bearers (12.4%).
Popularity
Francis: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Francis from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 65,206 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Francis 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 Francis during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 3,244 | 671 | 3,915 |
| 1890s | 4,535 | 1,090 | 5,625 |
| 1900s | 7,021 | 1,429 | 8,450 |
| 1910s | 41,053 | 4,393 | 45,446 |
| 1920s | 59,096 | 6,110 | 65,206 |
| 1930s | 41,384 | 3,576 | 44,960 |
| 1940s | 39,520 | 2,881 | 42,401 |
| 1950s | 34,765 | 2,114 | 36,879 |
| 1960s | 19,336 | 1,496 | 20,832 |
| 1970s | 10,015 | 1,280 | 11,295 |
| 1980s | 9,412 | 1,426 | 10,838 |
| 1990s | 7,079 | 1,381 | 8,460 |
| 2000s | 4,533 | 789 | 5,322 |
| 2010s | 5,442 | 651 | 6,093 |
| 2020s | 3,285 | 423 | 3,708 |
Geography
Where Francis' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Francis, while Nevada, Alaska, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 5,754 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Francis
The name Francis has its origins in the Latin language and culture, specifically deriving from the Roman family name Franciscus. This name can be traced back to the Latin word "Francus," meaning "Frankish" or "free." The Franks were a group of Germanic tribes that played a significant role in the later years of the Roman Empire and the establishment of the Frankish Empire in Western Europe.
The name Francis gained widespread popularity due to its association with St. Francis of Assisi (1181/1182 - 1226), the Italian Catholic friar and preacher who founded the Franciscan Order. St. Francis was renowned for his devotion to poverty, humility, and his love for nature. His life and teachings had a profound impact on the Catholic Church and the name became a popular choice among Catholic families.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Francis can be found in the 13th-century writings of St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan theologian, and biographer of St. Francis of Assisi. The name is also mentioned in various medieval chronicles and records, reflecting its growing popularity during the Middle Ages.
In addition to St. Francis of Assisi, several notable historical figures have borne the name Francis. These include:
1. St. Francis Xavier (1506 - 1552), a Navarrese Catholic missionary who was a co-founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and one of the most prominent evangelists of the Catholic Church in Asia.
2. Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), an English philosopher, statesman, and influential author, widely regarded as a pioneering figure in the scientific revolution.
3. Francis I (1494 - 1547), the King of France from 1515 until his death, known for his patronage of the arts and the Renaissance in France.
4. Francis Drake (c. 1540 - 1596), an English sea captain, navigator, and explorer, renowned for his circumnavigation of the globe and his raids against Spanish settlements and ships in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
5. Francis Scott Key (1779 - 1843), an American lawyer, author, and amateur poet, best known for writing the lyrics to the United States' national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner."
The name Francis has maintained its popularity throughout the centuries, with numerous notable individuals bearing the name across various fields, including religion, politics, literature, and the arts.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Francis
People
Francis + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Francis 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
Francis: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Francis?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 122,838 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Francis 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 2,790 US residents.
Is Francis a common name?
We classify Francis as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 319,430 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Francis most popular?
The single biggest year for Francis was 1918, when 7,000 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Francis is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Francis in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 138,483 people with the name Francis, or 45.85 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #409 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 Francis 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 Francis?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Francis leans strongly male. 121,263 people counted with this name were male (87.6%), compared with 17,230 female bearers (12.4%). 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 Francis?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Francis is White at 74.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.2%) and Black (7.6%). 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 Francis most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Francis in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.1% (102,679 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 Francis in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Francis a male name?
Yes, 90.7% of people registered as Francis in the SSA data are male. 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 Francis still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Francis 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 Francis 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 the name Francis?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.