Frances

given name · English · Latin script

Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Frances is a given name, most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom. In New Zealand it is the 64th most common given name. It appears chiefly in English and Spanish, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: from OFr Franceis, modFr François, originally ‘a Frank’, later ‘a Frenchman’; first attested Hugo Francus, Franceis 1135 Oseney (Oxfordshire).

rarermore common
  • GBUnited Kingdom1 in 839◐
  • SESweden1 in 840
  • NZNew Zealand1 in 844

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈268K ●

across 12 countries

#662 ●

of 16M given names

5 ●

recorded for this name

Sources
502 ●

3.8M records

Official registry-verified

1 in 840 ◐

Sweden

Spellings & scripts●

FrancesLatin · English●3.6M records
פרנססHebrew · Hebrew●866 records
ฟรานเซสThai · Thai●20 records
프랜시스Hangul · Korean●2 records
ΦράνςGreek · Greek●0 records

2 other spellings are counted as the same name:

Locally spelled Frans in NL Netherlands, ZA South Africa, FI Finland and 5 more and Francesc in ES Spain, FR France, AR Argentina.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

from OFr Franceis, modFr François, originally ‘a Frank’, later ‘a Frenchman’; first attested Hugo Francus, Franceis 1135 Oseney (Oxfordshire)

Sources 1

  • A Dictionary of English Surnames

Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Frances is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
GB United Kingdom#140246,521214K rec.—5Frances224
US United States#160199,9583M rec.1 in 1.7K200KFrances502
AU Australia#222101,25491K rec.—77Frances215
CA Canada#21164,08862K rec.—8Frances183
FR France—28,330△339 rec.1 in 2.4K28KFrancesc87
PH Philippines#77627,11221K rec.——Frances120
IT Italy#34123,39124K rec.—1Frances57
ZA South Africa#11720,04628K rec.——Frans80
ES Spain#24416,59048K rec.1 in 3K17KFrancesc173
DE Germany#75016,05216K rec.—listedFrances121
SE Sweden#72512,150△1.8K rec.1 in 84012KFrans53
NZ New Zealand#6410,1469.5K rec.—17Frances104

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • English3.6M83%
  • Spanish164K4%
  • 126K3%
  • French42K1%
  • Portuguese41K1%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
English3,573,55983%
Spanish163,6254%
126,3193%
French42,3271%
Portuguese41,4221%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Frances is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • Spanish given name293K records spelled Frances14 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Philippines, Argentina

    Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

    Also written Francés, Francês, Francès, Fránces, France'S

  • a separate given name144K records spelled Frances6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India

    Also written Francés, Francès, Francês, Fránces, Franćes

  • French given name57K records spelled Frances6 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, France, United Kingdom, Philippines

    Also written Francès, Francés, Francês, Françes

  • Polish given name20K records spelled Frances45 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, United Kingdom

    Languages: Polish, Czech, Russian

    Also written Фрэнсис, Франсис, Fransis, Francés, Francys

  • Hindi given name19K records spelled Frances13 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, India, Philippines

    Languages: Hindi, Sinhala, Urdu

    Also written Francés, ফ্রান্সেস, Frånçës, Francès, Francees

  • Indonesian given name9.9K records spelled Frances4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Indonesia, Philippines, United Kingdom

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written Francés, Francès

  • Catalan given name7.4K records spelled Frances4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Spain, Andorra

    Also written Francès, Francés, Francês

  • Hungarian given name5.8K records spelled Frances5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Hungary, United States, Finland, United Kingdom

    Languages: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian

    Also written Francès, Fråñçés

75 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Frances is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • In English, Feminine form of Francis; used in Ireland and once popular; Fanny anglicised Fainche.

    as a nameIrish first names

  • In English, From France or free woman; feminine form of Francis; French

    as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

  • In English, Feminine form of Francis; from Latin Franciscus.

    as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

  • In English, A female given name from Latin, masculine equivalent Francis.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • English: feminine form of FRANCIS . In the 16th century the two spellings were used indiscriminately for both sexes, the distinction in spelling not being established until the 17th century. Short form: Fran. Pet form: Fanny .

    as a word

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

05K10K15K20K19001950200016K · 1918

Show as table
Frances in SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present), United States, 1880–2025
Yearrecords
1880605
1881586
1882681
1883710
1884789
1885844
18861,059
18871,105
18881,452
18891,351
18901,416
18911,397
18921,670
18931,622
18941,776
18951,833
18961,964
18971,975
18982,379
18992,058
19002,495
19012,071
19022,326
19032,365
19042,657
19052,887
19063,026
19073,299
19083,593
19093,780
19104,448
19114,967
19126,680
19137,694
19149,677
191512,786
191613,746
191714,363
191816,132
191915,106
192015,883
192115,993
192215,054
192314,881
192415,183
192513,824
192613,355
192712,988
192812,137
192911,093
193010,644
19319,718
19329,552
19338,883
19349,206
19358,770
19368,789
19379,057
19388,921
19398,577
19408,621
19418,468
19429,471
19439,449
19448,487
19457,940
19468,450
19478,943
19488,179
19497,440
19506,975
19516,584
19526,079
19535,786
19545,153
19554,641
19564,324
19574,094
19583,847
19593,717
19603,590
19613,422
19623,004
19632,745
19642,599
19652,262
19662,126
19671,868
19681,745
19691,640
19701,627
19711,451
19721,282
19731,155
19741,068
19751,029
1976948
1977940
1978924
1979913
1980938
1981925
1982904
1983875
1984855
1985834
1986765
1987806
1988807
1989781
1990759
1991711
1992669
1993640
1994608
1995571
1996544
1997531
1998547
1999488
2000454
2001429
2002415
2003449
2004427
2005355
2006360
2007347
2008368
2009355
2010356
2011348
2012364
2013409
2014484
2015614
2016721
2017730
2018723
2019718
2020744
2021801
2022755
2023760
2024829
2025960

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 146 years between 1880–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

188019001920194019601980Frances Marion, b. 1888Nancy Reagan, b. 1921Judy Garland, b. 1922Debbie Reynolds, b. 1932Anne Rice, b. 1941Carrie Fisher, b. 1956Frances Arnold, b. 1956Frances McDormand, b. 1957Diana, Princess of Wales, b. 1961Lucy Lawless, b. 1968
  • Frances Marionb. 1888USAmerican journalist, author, film director and screenwriter (1888-1973)
  • Nancy Reaganb. 1921USnot in their usual nameFirst Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989
  • Judy Garlandb. 1922USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, singer, dancer and vaudevillian (1922–1969)
  • Debbie Reynoldsb. 1932USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, singer, and dancer (1932–2016)
  • Anne Riceb. 1941USnot in their usual nameAmerican author (1941–2021)
  • Carrie Fisherb. 1956USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, writer and screenwriter (1956–2016)
  • Frances Arnoldb. 1956USNobel prize winning US scientist and engineer (born 1956)
  • Frances McDormandb. 1957USAmerican actress
  • Diana, Princess of Walesb. 1961GBnot in their usual namemember of the British royal family and Princess of Wales (1961–1997)
  • Lucy Lawlessb. 1968NZnot in their usual nameNew Zealand actress

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Attested in 86 sources across 40 countries.

Official registers attesting Frances
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020200K#273
ES SpainINE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—7.2K#757
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—7.2K#757
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020002.3K#12,193
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 201020102.2K#13,627
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020202.1K#13,871
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex20201.7K#273
BR BrazilIBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror)20221.1K—
BR BrazilIBGE — Nomes (census name API)—1K#9,017
SE SwedenSkatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population)—1K#1,663
AR ArgentinaRENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national)—1K—
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)2025960—

Reference works 5

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
  • Wikipedia given-name tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,233 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Frances?
We estimate roughly 268 thousand people bear Frances (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.
In which country does Frances have the most bearers?
Frances is most frequently recorded in the United Kingdom, where it is most often spelled frances.
How common is Frances compared with other names?
In the United Kingdom, Frances is the 140th most common given name of 369,273 given names recorded there.
Is Frances a male or female name?
Frances is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
What does the name Frances mean?
Recorded meaning: from OFr Franceis, modFr François, originally ‘a Frank’, later ‘a Frenchman’; first attested Hugo Francus, Franceis 1135 Oseney (Oxfordshire)
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/frances

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Frances” — the 140th most common given name in United Kingdom. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Frances parses inside a full name →