France

11,343 people in the United States were counted with the surname France in the 2020 census, making it the 3,093rd most common in the country. That is about one person in 26,400.

By the numbers

People: 11,343
Rank: 3,093rd
How common: 1 in 26,400
Per 100,000: 3.8

Where the name comes from

Origin French

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.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname France described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 72.3%
Black, not Hispanic 18.3%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.5%
Hispanic or Latino 3.6%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.9%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.5%

Notable people called France

Anatole France (1844–1924)French writer
Louis XVI of France (1754–1793)King of France and Navarre from 1774 to 1791, then King of the French from 1791 to 1792
Charles X of France (1757–1836)King of France and Navarre from 1824 to 1830
Philip II of France (1165–1223)King of France, and the first to be called by that title
Philip VI of France (1293–1350)King of France from 1328 to 1350
Elisabeth of France (1602–1644)Queen consort of Spain
Pierre Mendès France (1907–1982)French politician
Cécile de France (born 1975)Belgian actress

People named France with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like France

Also a first name

France has been given to 1,538 American babies as a first name since 1894, peaking in 1918. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.