France
France is a girl's name that peaked in 1918, when it was the 1,277th most popular in the United States. It is given to both boys and girls. It has not appeared in the national data since 2021. About 650 Frances are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 63.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named France boys named France
Girls and boys called France
years more girls than boys years more boys than girls
France crossed from boys to girls in 1919, and has stayed there for 15 of the years counted since. At its furthest it was 100% girls, and in 1966 it was 74%.
The girls’ share of each year’s babies of the name, in the 18 years in which at least 25 babies got it. The line touches the middle more often than there are crossings marked: a year or two on the other side is not a name changing hands, and only a move that holds for 5 counted years and reaches 60/40 is recorded as one. All 581 names that changed sex.
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 1,538
- Estimated living today
- 650
- Median age today
- 63
- Peak year
- 1918
- Best rank
- 1,277th
- Rank in 2025
- unranked
- First recorded
- 1894
- Girls / boys
- 1,159 / 379
How old the living Frances are
born that year still alive today
Of the 1,538 babies given the name since 1894, about 650 are alive — 43 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1962 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Where the name comes from
From Middle English France, from Old French France, from Latin Francia, from Francī, the name of a Germanic tribe, of unclear (but Proto-Germanic) origin. Believed to be most likely from Frankish *Frankō (“a Frank”), from Proto-Germanic *frankô (“javelin”). Compare Frank. Displaced native (see modern Frankland).
Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Notable Frances
- France Prešeren (1800–1849)Slovene national poet, a Carniolan Romantic poet of Slovene descent
- France Gall (1947–2018)French singer
- France-Albert René (1935–2019)President of Seychelles
- France Bevk (1890–1970)Slovene writer
- France Nuyen (born 1939)French actress
- France Štiglic (1919–1993)Slovenian film director
- France A. Córdova (born 1947)American astrophysicist and university president
- France Gareau (born 1967)athletics competitor
People named France with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where France is most common
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1918
The most popular girls’ names the year France peaked:
France elsewhere
| Country | Spelling | Births | Best rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| France girls | France | 28,345 | 36th |
| France boys | France | 1,825 | 139th |
| Belgium girls | France | 87 | 533rd |
Counts come from each country's own records and are not comparable with the US figures above, which cover different years and a different definition of a recorded name. Where a country writes the name several ways, the spellings are added together and the most common is shown. A row marked name registrations is counting something else: Portugal ranks each of a child's two given names separately, so a girl registered Maria Leonor is in both the Maria row and the Leonor row, and that figure is not a number of children.
France: rank by region
In 2003, France was given 5 times or more in 1 region of Belgium.
| Region | Spelling | Place | Children |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wallonia | France | 349 | 7 |
Each of these is the top of a list the statistics office cut off somewhere – Belgium below 5 children – and published nothing after. So a region missing here is one where the name fell outside what was published, not one where it went unused. Places are shared where names tie, and the further down a list a place is, the more names can share it.
France among the living
How many people each country's register counts under the name, rather than how many were given it in any one year. Each register was read on one date, and they are not the same date.
| Country | Spelling | First forename | Any forename |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finland girls | France | — | 6 |
A count of people on a register – Finland on 4 August 2026 – and not of births, so it cannot be compared with the figures above. Names with very few bearers are withheld, and a dash in the first-forename column means the register would not say rather than that nobody goes by it.
Related names
France against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.