Frank

Spellings & scripts●

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●

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

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◐

Frank is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name1.3M records spelled Frank57 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Brazil, Peru, France

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French

  Also written Fränk, Fránk, Fran'K, Frânk, Frank'

• a separate given name200K records spelled Frank5 spellings in the group

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

  Also written Fränk, Franḳ, Frānk

• Polish given name67K records spelled Frank62 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Poland, Czechia, Croatia

  Languages: Polish, Croatian, Czech

  Also written Franc, Franz, Франц, Frenk, Franck

• Hindi given name50K records spelled Frank15 spellings in the group

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

  Languages: Hindi, Sinhala, Urdu

  Also written Franc, Phrank, Franka, ফ্রাঙ্ক, Fřąnķ

• Finnish given name25K records spelled Frank6 spellings in the group

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

  Languages: Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian

  Also written Fränk, Frâñk

• Indonesian given name19K records spelled Frank3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Indonesia, Tanzania, Philippines

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Frâñk

101 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●

Frank 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 German, Toponymic surname: 'the one from Franken' / from a place or region named Franken; variant attestations on the page include many spellings, but no bearer count is given.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

• In English, from the personal name Franco, Francus, or from OFr franc 'free'; first attested Franco, Francus 1086 Domesday Book (Somerset, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Surrey)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In German, Toponymic surname from a place name/region/dwelling name ‘Frank’; bearer count 27,155.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 4: Familiennamen nach Herkunft und Wohnstätte

• In German, from the ethnic name of the Franks; also linked with meanings 'free' and 'bold'

  as a name·Deutsche Namenkunde: Unsere Familiennamen nach ihrer Entstehung und Bedeutung

• In German, German surname spelling variant showing nk after Fra-; 81,771 tokens.

  as a name·Deutscher Familiennamenatlas, Band 2: Graphematik/Phonologie der Familiennamen II, Konsonantismus

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●

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●

• L. Frank Baumb. 1856USAmerican author of children's books (1856–1919)
• Buster Keatonb. 1895USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor, comedian, and director (1895–1966)
• C. F. Powellb. 1903GBnot in their usual nameBritish physicist
• Willard Libbyb. 1908USnot in their usual nameAmerican physical chemist
• Frank Gehryb. 1929USCanadian and American architect (1929–2025)
• Frank Zappab. 1940USAmerican musician (1940–1993)
• Frank Ozb. 1944USBritish and American director, actor, and puppeteer
• Frank Wilczekb. 1951USAmerican theoretical physicist
• Don Cheadleb. 1964USnot in their usual nameAmerican actor (born 1964)
• Gareth Baleb. 1989GBnot in their usual nameWelsh association football player

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●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 1,616 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Frank?

We estimate roughly 642 thousand people bear Frank (counting its spellings and scripts) across 10 countries in our records.

In which country does Frank have the most bearers?

Frank is most frequently recorded in Germany, where it is most often spelled frank.

How common is Frank compared with other names?

In Germany, Frank is the 12th most common given name of 154,506 given names recorded there.

Is Frank a male or female name?

Frank is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Frank mean?

Recorded meaning: from the Norman male personal name Franc, literally ‘member of the Frankish people’, or ‘person from Franconia’