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Franco

#747 in 2025Boys' name

Form of Frank

Franco has been given to 9,107 babies in the U.S. since 1923. In 2025 it ranked #747 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2016, with 353 recorded.

Babies named Franco, 2025

1 in 9,530

Franco over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Franco: meaning, origin, and history

Form of Frank

Italian and Spanish

What Franco means

Franco is a form of Frank.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Franco → Frank → Francis. The family’s meaning is “French(man)”, recorded in English with the source elements Franciscus.

Origin, language, and formation

Franco is used in English, Cebuano, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Tagalog. Its origins include Italian and Spanish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Frank.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Italian, Franco is pronounced /ˈfran.ko/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 9,107 boys were recorded with the name Franco between 1923 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 353 in 2016; its best national rank was #702 in 2016.

Over 5 years its rank rose, from #945 in 2020 to #747 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank rose, from #876 in 2015 to #747 in 2025.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Franco?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 9,530
348 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 4,910
0.02% of boys
Rank, 2025
#747
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
6,604 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Franco sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2025 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 1001%
School of 5005%

Put another way: gather 6,604 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Franco. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Francos were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Franco was born before 2009 — so the typical Franco is around 16 today.

Median birth year
2009
About 16 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
29.1% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
67.8%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
9,073
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 29.1% of all recorded uses (2,649).

Is Franco rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
−2
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+198
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+129
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.37×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
98.6%
Peak was 2016 (353)
Years since peak
9
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
13.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#702
2016

Spellings of Franco

Franco is not the most common spelling — Frank is, with 73.9% against Franco's 0.74%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Franco is used

Across 2016–2025, Franco was most concentrated in Florida — about 1 in 3,125 boys, against 1 in 5,007 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in 50,000).

232 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Florida1 in 3,125
  2. 2New Jersey1 in 3,125
  3. 3Texas1 in 3,125
  4. 4California1 in 3,226
  5. 5Arizona1 in 3,448
  6. 6Illinois1 in 3,704
  7. 7Pennsylvania1 in 4,762
  8. 8New York1 in 5,000

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings.

Geographically, Franco is one of the more regionally concentrated names in the country — more concentrated than 86% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Franco around the world

Where Franco ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1998–2025
    #763
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    2010–2025
    #647
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2025–2025
    #829
    in 2025
  • France
    1915–2025
    #4,029
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #977
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1951–2012
    #771
    in 2012

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Franco

People whose public names include Franco, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Franco in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Franco. Linked forms have their own page here.

PacoFrancFrankFransFranzFerencFranckFrankoFrantzFrancisFrancescFranciscFranklinFrancescoFranciscoFranciscusFranciszekFañchFränkFrancusFrancésFrañsezFrançoisFragiskos

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Franco by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#747
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 198
Best rank ever
#702
2016
Peak year
2016
353 that year
First recorded
1923
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
9,107
Count in 2025
348

Names similar to Franco

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

FrankyFrancesFranklynFranzFrantzFrazierFrankieFrancescoFraserFrancoisFrankoFransiscoFrandyFrancisFranklinFranceFranFranciscoFransicoFrasierFranckFrankBroncoFrazer

Names with a curve like Franco

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Franco, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

ReyVincenzoChaimAndersSamirYosefYisroelEliezerKarimMordechaiYehudaEphraim

Sibling names for Franco

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Franco

Top names of 2016, Franco's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 2016Boys' names starting with FFrancis Variations & NicknamesItalian Boy Names