Frederick
A Germanic masculine name meaning "peaceful ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 142,504 living Americans carry the first name Frederick. It sits at #423 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Frederick today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Frederick births was 1952 (4,997 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Frederick. 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 Frederick with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Frederick is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,105 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
143K
~ 1 in 2,405 Americans
Peak year
1952
4,997 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2024 SSA rank
#423
Tracked since 1880
Census
Frederick in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 138,933 people with the first name Frederick, which placed it at #406 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
#406
National first-name rank
People counted
139K
138,933 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
46.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
73.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Frederick
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Frederick is White at 73.0%. The next largest groups are Black (18.0%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Frederick 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 Frederick at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White73.0% · 101,438
- Black or African American18.0% · 25,069
- Hispanic or Latino3.6% · 5,044
- Two or more races2.4% · 3,332
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 3,223
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 827
Gender
Gender distribution for Frederick
Out of the 266,429 babies given the name Frederick since 1880, 99.6% 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.
Frederick as a male name
- Ranked #423 in 2024
- 741 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1951 (4,984 births)
Frederick as a female name
- Ranked #14,231 in 1993
- 5 female births in 1993
- Peak: 1972 (28 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Frederick appears almost entirely male. Of the 138,927 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Frederick: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Frederick from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 44,446 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Frederick 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 Frederick during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Fredericks live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts recorded the most babies named Frederick, while Wyoming, Nevada, Idaho recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 4,909 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Frederick
The name Frederick has its origins in the Germanic languages, deriving from the compound words "frid" meaning peace and "ric" meaning ruler or power. It essentially translates to "peaceful ruler" or "rich in peace." The name can be traced back to the 8th century and was popular among Germanic tribes like the Franks and Saxons.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Frankish king Frederic I, who ruled the Frankish Kingdom from 484 to 497 AD. The name gained widespread popularity across Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly after the reign of Frederick I Barbarossa, the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 to 1190.
In the 12th century, the name appeared in the famous medieval epic poem "Nibelungenlied," which recounted the adventures of the Burgundian hero Frederic. This literary work helped to further establish the name's prominence in medieval European culture.
Throughout history, the name Frederick has been borne by several notable figures, including Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 to 1250, known for his patronage of the arts and sciences. Another famous bearer was Frederick the Great, the King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786, who was a renowned military leader and patron of Enlightenment philosophy.
In the 19th century, Frederick Douglass, the American social reformer and abolitionist, was born into slavery in 1818 and became a prominent figure in the anti-slavery movement. The name also gained literary significance through the works of Frederick Schiller, the German playwright, and poet who lived from 1759 to 1805.
The name Frederick has also been associated with royalty, including Frederick IX, the King of Denmark from 1947 to 1972, and Frederick, Prince of Wales, the heir apparent to the British throne during the early 18th century.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Frederick
People
Frederick + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Frederick 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
Frederick: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Frederick?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 142,504 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Frederick 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 2,405 US residents.
Is Frederick a common name?
We classify Frederick 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, 266,429 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Frederick most popular?
The single biggest year for Frederick was 1952, when 4,997 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Frederick is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Frederick in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 138,933 people with the name Frederick, or 46.00 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #406 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 Frederick 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 Frederick?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Frederick appears almost entirely male. Of the 138,927 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Frederick?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Frederick is White at 73.0%. The next largest groups are Black (18.0%) and Hispanic (3.6%). 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 Frederick most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Frederick in the 2020 Census, accounting for 73.0% (101,438 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 Frederick in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Frederick a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Frederick 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 Frederick still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Frederick 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 Frederick 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 Frederick?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Frederick at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.