Frances
Frances is ranked 379th among girls in 2024 (821 births). Its best rank was 8th, in 1918.
- Rank in 2024
- #379up 26 from 2023
- Births in 2024
- 8210.05% of girls
- Peak year
- 191816,131 births
- Best rank
- #8in 1918
- Since 1880
- 599,746people given the name
The story in the numbers
594,729 girls have been named Frances in the United States since 1880, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1918, with 16,131 births — 1.4% of all girls recorded that year.
The name has all but left use: 821 births in 2024, against 16,131 at the peak.
Half of everyone given the name was born by 1929, and the 1920s alone account for 24%. It has spent 145 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 76 of them in the top 100 and 15 in the top 10.
It is overwhelmingly a girl’s name: 5,017 boys have also been given it, 0.84% of the total.
Rank among girls, year by year
By decade
| Decade | girls named Frances | |
|---|---|---|
| 1880s | 9,182 | |
| 1890s | 18,090 | |
| 1900s | 28,499 | |
| 1910s | 105,599 | |
| 1920s | 140,391 | |
| 1930s | 92,118 | |
| 1940s | 85,447 | |
| 1950s | 51,200 | |
| 1960s | 25,000 | |
| 1970s | 11,340 | |
| 1980s | 8,489 | |
| 1990s | 6,068 | |
| 2000s | 3,959 | |
| 2010s | 5,466 | |
| 2020s | 3,881 |
In 1918, its biggest year
Frances was the 8th most given girl’s name that year. The top five girls’ names of 1918 were Mary, Helen, Dorothy, Margaret and Ruth. See all of 1918.
Names that rose and fell with Frances
Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.
- Margarettepeak 1921
- Margaretpeak 1921
- Rosellapeak 1924
- Rozellapeak 1927
- Naomapeak 1924
- Eldorapeak 1923
- Paulinepeak 1918
- Berylpeak 1920
What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.