Humanverse

Francies vs Franklin

American parents have registered 142,506 Franklins since 1880, against 965 Francieses. Franklin is still ahead, with 909 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Francies against Franklin, 1880 to 2025 0 1.5k 3k 4.5k 6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Francies Franklin

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Franklin has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1902, when Francies had 12 and Franklin had 97.

Side by side

  Francies Franklin
Total US births 965142,506
Most in one year 335,387
Babies in 2025 under 5909
Estimated living today 23075,000
Median age today 7653
Peak year 19231933
Best rank 1,520th girls33rd boys
Rank in 2025 unranked359th
First recorded 18851880
Girls / boys 952 / 13778 / 141,728

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Francieses alive today are over 76; half the Franklins are over 53. That is 23 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Francies and Franklin.