Franklin

115,358 people in the United States were counted with the surname Franklin in the 2020 census, making it the 264th most common in the country. That is about one person in 2,591.

By the numbers

People: 115,358
Rank: 264th
How common: 1 in 2,591
Per 100,000: 38.6

Where the name comes from

Origin a nickname

From Middle English frankelein (“freeholder”), see franklin. The place names are mostly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 52.2%
Black, not Hispanic 37.6%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 5.1%
Hispanic or Latino 3.6%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%

Notable people called Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)American polymath and statesman
Aretha Franklin (1942–2018)American singer, songwriter, and pianist
Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958)British chemist, biophysicist, and X-ray crystallographer
John Franklin (1786–1847)British naval officer and explorer
Missy Franklin (born 1995)American swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, world champion, world record-holder
Miles Franklin (1879–1954)Australian writer and feminist
Ursula Franklin (1921–2016)Canadian metallurgist, research physicist, author, and educator
Bonnie Franklin (1944–2013)American actress

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

Surnames like Franklin

Also a first name

Franklin has been given to 142,506 American babies as a first name since 1880, peaking in 1933. 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.