Frank

What Frank means

Form of Francis, meaning “Frankish (man); a Frank”

form of Francis || Borrowed from Medieval Latin Franciscus (“Frankish (man); a Frank”), from Francia (“Frankland”)).

Source: Wiktionary, “Frank” (revision 94539402) and “Francis” (revision 94539390), CC BY-SA 4.0. Quoted from the etymology; we don’t write our own.

How popular is Frank?

US: Falling: down from #355 in 2015. England & Wales: Steady: #187 in 2015, #186 now.

Biggest US share so far: 1880, when 3,242 boys got the name (#6 that year). First in the US records in 1880.

How common

• About 1 in 2,925 baby boys in the US in 2025
• About 1 in 1,000 baby boys in England and Wales in 2025
• About 1 in 6,547 baby boys in Scotland in 2025

“1 in N” divides by all listed births for that sex. The US list leaves out names given to fewer than 5 babies, and the UK lists leave out names given to 2 or fewer, so the real figure is a little rarer than shown.

Where in the US

Most popular in ME (1.56 per 1,000 boys), CT (0.98 per 1,000 boys), NJ (0.98 per 1,000 boys) in 2025.

SSA state data, 2025. Share of all listed boys born in each state.

US vs UK

Frank is #513 in the US and #186 in England & Wales (2025).

Same sex as this page (boys). SSA (US), ONS (England and Wales), NRS (Scotland).

Boy or girl?

In 2025, 99.9+% of US babies named Frank were boys.

Counts below the publishing threshold (US 5, UK 3) are not included.

How to say it

IPA from Wiktionary.

If you like Frank

Boys

• Robert#92“shining glory”^*
• Richard#234“king, ruler + hard, brave”^*
• Ronald#637“advice + power”^*
• Jeffrey#552Editor’s note More popular in the US than England & Wales: #552 vs #1,705 in 2025
• Raymond#394“advice + protection”^*
• Dustin#728possibly “Thor s stone”^*

For a sister

• Linda#902“tender, soft”^*
• Alicia#460Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1984, with 7,820 babies; 672 in 2025
• Alison#476“of noble kind”^*
• Anne#619Editor’s note Peaked in the US in 1959, with 5,745 babies; 472 in 2025
• Allison#103Form of Elon, meaning “oak tree”^*
• Alyssa#453“a plant of the genus Alyssum”^*

Picked from the US top 1,000 in 2025: names Wiktionary also files under Germanic, whose US popularity since 1990 rose and fell most like Frank’s. Rank is US 2025.