Frank
A masculine given name of Germanic origin meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 379,098 living Americans carry the first name Frank. It sits at #468 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.5% of registrations). The average person named Frank today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Frank births was 1918 (17,089 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Frank. 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 Frank with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Frank is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 4,611 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1920s, recent registration numbers for Frank have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
379K
~ 1 in 904 Americans
Peak year
1918
17,089 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
2024 SSA rank
#468
Tracked since 1880
Census
Frank in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 407,086 people with the first name Frank, which placed it at #115 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
#115
National first-name rank
People counted
407K
407,086 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
134.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Frank
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Frank is White at 71.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.2%) and Black (8.1%). 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 Frank 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 Frank at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.9% · 292,774
- Hispanic or Latino15.2% · 61,887
- Black or African American8.1% · 32,900
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 9,297
- Two or more races1.8% · 7,305
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2,923
Gender
Gender distribution for Frank
Out of the 920,009 babies given the name Frank since 1880, 99.5% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Frank as a male name
- Ranked #468 in 2024
- 656 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (17,018 births)
Frank as a female name
- Ranked #18,553 in 2007
- 5 female births in 2007
- Peak: 1929 (130 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Frank appears almost entirely male. Of the 407,086 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Frank: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Frank 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 152,777 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
Frank 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 Frank 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 | 30,967 | 168 | 31,135 |
| 1890s | 28,718 | 221 | 28,939 |
| 1900s | 29,046 | 194 | 29,240 |
| 1910s | 116,017 | 560 | 116,577 |
| 1920s | 151,830 | 947 | 152,777 |
| 1930s | 108,088 | 617 | 108,705 |
| 1940s | 119,420 | 401 | 119,821 |
| 1950s | 112,321 | 377 | 112,698 |
| 1960s | 87,150 | 384 | 87,534 |
| 1970s | 46,920 | 373 | 47,293 |
| 1980s | 33,603 | 267 | 33,870 |
| 1990s | 23,967 | 97 | 24,064 |
| 2000s | 14,475 | 5 | 14,480 |
| 2010s | 9,479 | 0 | 9,479 |
| 2020s | 3,397 | 0 | 3,397 |
Geography
Where Franks live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, California recorded the most babies named Frank, while Alaska, Vermont, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16,212 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Frank
The name Frank has its origins in the Germanic Franks tribe that settled in present-day France and parts of Germany during the 3rd century CE. It is derived from the Germanic word "franko," meaning "free" or "truthful." The Franks were known for their fierceness and bravery in battle, and the name came to symbolize these qualities.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Frank can be found in the 6th century CE, when it was borne by Frankish kings such as Clovis I, who is credited with uniting the Frankish tribes and converting to Christianity. The name gained popularity throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly in France and Germany.
In the 12th century, the Catholic Church canonized St. Francis of Assisi, whose given name was Francesco. This further contributed to the widespread use of the name Frank and its variants across Europe. Several notable figures throughout history have borne this name, including:
1. Charlemagne (742-814 CE), the Frankish king who established the Carolingian Empire and was crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800 CE.
2. Francis Bacon (1561-1626), the English philosopher, statesman, and scientific pioneer who advocated for the empirical method of scientific inquiry.
3. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and a renowned polymath known for his contributions to science, politics, and literature.
4. Frank Sinatra (1915-1998), the iconic American singer and actor who was a prominent figure in the entertainment industry for over six decades.
5. Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), the influential American architect and designer who pioneered the Prairie School of architecture and designed numerous iconic buildings.
While the name Frank has been popular throughout Western history, it has also been adopted and adapted in various cultures around the world, reflecting the widespread influence of the Franks and their legacy.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Frank
-
Frank Baum
-
Frank Capra
-
Frank Coraci
-
Frank Herbert
-
Frank Lampard
-
Frank Langella
-
Frank Launder
-
Frank Lloyd
-
Frank Lobiondo
-
Frank Lucas
-
Frank Marshall
-
Frank Mcdonald
-
Frank Nissen
-
Frank Oz
-
Frank Pallone
-
Frank Perry
-
Frank Pierson
-
Frank Robinson
-
Frank Schroder
-
Frank Sinatra
-
Frank Strayer
-
Frank Thomas
-
Frank Tuttle
-
Frank Whaley
-
Frank Wolf
-
Frank Zappa
People
Frank + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Frank 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
Frank: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Frank?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 379,098 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Frank 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 904 US residents.
Is Frank a common name?
We classify Frank as "Common". It ranks above 99.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 920,009 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Frank most popular?
The single biggest year for Frank was 1918, when 17,089 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Frank is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Frank in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 407,086 people with the name Frank, or 134.78 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #115 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 Frank 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 Frank?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Frank appears almost entirely male. Of the 407,086 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Frank?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Frank is White at 71.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (15.2%) and Black (8.1%). 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 Frank most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Frank in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.9% (292,774 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 Frank in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Frank a male name?
Yes, 99.5% of people registered as Frank 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 Frank still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Frank 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 Frank 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 Americans are named Frank?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.