Franklyn
Of English origin meaning "free landowner or freeman".
Name Census estimates that about 3,491 living Americans carry the first name Franklyn. It is a predominantly male name (98.6% of registrations). The average person named Franklyn today is around 48 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Franklyn births was 1933 (133 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Franklyn. 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 Franklyn with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Franklyn is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 88 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
3.5K
~ 1 in 98,182 Americans
Peak year
1933
133 babies that year
Average age
48
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,949
Tracked since 1885
Census
Franklyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,338 people with the first name Franklyn, which placed it at #4,345 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
#4,345
National first-name rank
People counted
4.3K
4,338 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
35.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Franklyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Franklyn is White at 35.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (35.4%) and Black (23.4%). 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 Franklyn 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 Franklyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White35.9% · 1,558
- Hispanic or Latino35.4% · 1,536
- Black or African American23.4% · 1,015
- Two or more races2.6% · 114
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.0% · 86
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 29
Gender
Gender distribution for Franklyn
Franklyn leans heavily male at 98.6% of total registrations, but 88 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Franklyn as a male name
- Ranked #6,949 in 2024
- 12 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1933 (133 births)
Franklyn as a female name
- Ranked #12,560 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2019 (14 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Franklyn leans strongly male. 4,222 people counted with this name were male (97.2%), compared with 121 female bearers (2.8%).
Popularity
Franklyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Franklyn from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 824 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Franklyn 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 Franklyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Franklyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. New York, California, New Jersey recorded the most babies named Franklyn, while Washington, Georgia, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 146 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Franklyn
The name Franklyn originated from the medieval Germanic name Franko, which was derived from the Germanic tribe known as the Franks. The Franks were a group of Germanic peoples who settled in the region now known as France during the 5th century AD. The name Franko itself means "free" or "truthful" in the Frankish language.
The name Franklyn emerged as an English variant of the Germanic Franko, with the addition of the suffix "-lyn" which was commonly used in medieval times to form diminutive or affectionate forms of names. This variant spelling first appeared in the 12th century and was particularly popular among the Norman nobility in England.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Franklyn can be found in the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, written in the late 14th century. In this literary work, the character of the Franklin is described as a prosperous and hospitable landowner from the county of Norfolk.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Franklyn. One of the most famous was Franklyn D. Roosevelt (1882-1945), the 32nd President of the United States, who led the country through the Great Depression and World War II. Another notable Franklyn was Franklyn Ajaye (1949-2011), a Ghanaian writer and academic who is credited with coining the term "Afrocentricity."
Other notable individuals with the name Franklyn include Franklyn Kilome (born 1995), a Mexican professional baseball pitcher; Franklyn Farnum (1878-1961), an American actor and director during the silent film era; and Franklyn Seales (born 1942), an American actor and activist known for his work in the Black Panther Party.
While the name Franklyn has its roots in the Germanic language and culture, it has since become a part of the English-speaking world and has been adopted by various cultures over time. Despite its ancient origins, the name continues to be used and cherished by many families today.
People
Franklyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Franklyn 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
Franklyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Franklyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,491 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Franklyn 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 98,182 US residents.
Is Franklyn a common name?
We classify Franklyn as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,161 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Franklyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Franklyn was 1933, when 133 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Franklyn is about 48 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Franklyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,338 people with the name Franklyn, or 1.44 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,345 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 Franklyn 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 Franklyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Franklyn leans strongly male. 4,222 people counted with this name were male (97.2%), compared with 121 female bearers (2.8%). 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 Franklyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Franklyn is White at 35.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (35.4%) and Black (23.4%). 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 Franklyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Franklyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 35.9% (1,558 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 Franklyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Franklyn a male name?
Yes, 98.6% of people registered as Franklyn 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 Franklyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Franklyn 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 Franklyn 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 are called Franklyn?
Want to know how many people share the name Franklyn? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.