Fran
Fran was last recorded in 2025, when 6 babies were given it; 5,339 Americans have been recorded with it between 1912 and 2025 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,840 Americans named Fran and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (72% of everyone recorded); the median is 68 years old and half are between 63 and 75.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Fran by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Fran mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Fran is “a diminutive of the female given names Frances and Francine.”
Also “a diminutive of the male given name Francis.”
/fɹæn/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Fran?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #17,342, in 2015; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
297 babies in 1960, the peak
Fran peaked in 1960, when 297 babies were given it (280 girls, #593 among girls’ names). The 6 births of 2025 are 2% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 5 | #17,342 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 6 | #11,992 | under 0.01 |
| 1987 | 6 | #10,270 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 6 | #9,925 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 7 | #8,630 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 15 | #4,798 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,311 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,305 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 15 | #4,802 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 17 | #4,384 | 0.01 |
Every recorded year (77)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 11 | #5,866 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 21 | #3,542 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 28 | #2,854 | 0.02 |
| 1976 | 24 | #3,034 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 25 | #2,898 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 25 | #2,859 | 0.02 |
| 1973 | 28 | #2,586 | 0.02 |
| 1972 | 18 | #3,437 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 39 | #2,121 | 0.02 |
| 1970 | 39 | #2,093 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 45 | #1,846 | 0.03 |
| 1968 | 53 | #1,579 | 0.03 |
| 1967 | 70 | #1,305 | 0.04 |
| 1966 | 87 | #1,136 | 0.05 |
| 1965 | 100 | #1,050 | 0.06 |
| 1964 | 116 | #992 | 0.06 |
| 1963 | 132 | #917 | 0.07 |
| 1962 | 164 | #818 | 0.08 |
| 1961 | 247 | #651 | 0.12 |
| 1960 | 280 | #593 | 0.14 |
| 1959 | 270 | #605 | 0.13 |
| 1958 | 210 | #682 | 0.10 |
| 1957 | 190 | #725 | 0.09 |
| 1956 | 161 | #773 | 0.08 |
| 1955 | 177 | #709 | 0.09 |
| 1954 | 150 | #760 | 0.08 |
| 1953 | 152 | #740 | 0.08 |
| 1952 | 138 | #756 | 0.07 |
| 1951 | 149 | #714 | 0.08 |
| 1950 | 97 | #900 | 0.06 |
| 1949 | 116 | #807 | 0.07 |
| 1948 | 146 | #686 | 0.09 |
| 1947 | 161 | #660 | 0.09 |
| 1946 | 165 | #617 | 0.11 |
| 1945 | 100 | #751 | 0.08 |
| 1944 | 113 | #706 | 0.09 |
| 1943 | 133 | #658 | 0.10 |
| 1942 | 107 | #721 | 0.08 |
| 1941 | 70 | #872 | 0.06 |
| 1940 | 60 | #930 | 0.05 |
| 1939 | 61 | #900 | 0.06 |
| 1938 | 43 | #1,100 | 0.04 |
| 1937 | 47 | #1,039 | 0.04 |
| 1936 | 28 | #1,393 | 0.03 |
| 1935 | 34 | #1,230 | 0.03 |
| 1934 | 27 | #1,425 | 0.03 |
| 1933 | 9 | #2,963 | 0.01 |
| 1932 | 6 | #4,077 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 12 | #2,471 | 0.01 |
| 1930 | 12 | #2,591 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 9 | #3,223 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 14 | #2,429 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 14 | #2,470 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 15 | #2,389 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 12 | #2,836 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 17 | #2,240 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 5 | #5,285 | under 0.01 |
| 1921 | 12 | #2,836 | 0.01 |
| 1920 | 8 | #3,736 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 7 | #3,989 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 16 | #2,234 | 0.01 |
| 1917 | 8 | #3,469 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 7 | #3,681 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 6 | #3,950 | 0.01 |
| 1914 | 8 | #2,732 | 0.01 |
| 1913 | 8 | #2,409 | 0.01 |
| 1912 | 6 | #2,751 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Fran a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 5,339 Americans recorded as Fran, 93% are girls and 7% boys. In 2025 it went to 6 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Fran: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Fran, and how old are they?
3,840 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 72% of the 5,339 Americans ever recorded as Fran. The median Fran alive today is 68 years old; half are between 63 and 75.
The 2020 Census counted 10,269 people named Fran (8,997 women and girls, 1,272 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 4,238 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.4 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Fran rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 387 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 2,630 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 633 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 125 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 33 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 24 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Fran born?
The states with the most babies named Fran are New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois, with 53% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 1,186 | not ranked | 2.5× |
| Pennsylvania | 186 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| Illinois | 183 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| California | 174 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Texas | 168 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| New Jersey | 153 | not ranked | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 138 | not ranked | 1.0× |
| Ohio | 115 | not ranked | 0.4× |
| Michigan | 110 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| Louisiana | 93 | not ranked | 0.8× |
Where Fran is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Fran is most over-represented in New York: since 1912 it was given 2.5 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Fran with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 5 names spelled alike, given to 6,248 babies since 1880, Fran is the most given (85% of them).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Fran
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Fran and names like it
- Compare Fran and FarynBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1960sFran peaked in 1960.
- New York’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Fran since 1910.
- The top names of 1960The year the most babies were named Fran.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Fran alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with FMost given first.