Dr. Cleveland Evans writes about names for the Omaha World-Herald. In his July 27th column, he discusses the name “Frank”.
Between the 11th and 14th centuries, Frank was common as a boys’ name in England. Like many medieval names, it then largely disappeared.
Frank came back as a nickname for Francis, English form of Italian Francesco, “a Frenchman,” when the fame of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) spread his name across Europe.
It’s hard to tell exactly when Frank started being used separately from Francis again, but this started by 1800. Jane Austen’s 1815 novel “Emma,” featuring handsome genial wealthy Frank Churchill, helped spread the name.
The 1850 United States census, first listing all free residents by name, found 17,228 male Franks, along with 71,733 Francises and 37,257 Franklins. English surname Franklin (“freeman”) became an American given name in honor of founding father Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).
A decade later the 1860 census found 88,681 Francises, 57,854 Franklins and 106,459 Franks. Some Franks were officially Francis or Franklin, though it’s difficult to know how many. Still, the over six-fold increase in Franks shows the name was skyrocketing in use.
In 1880, when Social Security’s yearly baby name lists begin, 2.738% of boys were named Frank, ranking it sixth. That was Frank’s peak. The percentage of boys named Frank has declined almost every year since — but it’s done so extremely slowly. Frank was among the top ten names until 1923, the top fifty until 1971 and the top hundred until 1989.
Want to learn more? Read on to learn more about the name “Frank”!