Free
Free was last recorded in 2024, when 6 babies were given it; 132 Americans have been recorded with it between 1974 and 2024 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Free by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Free?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #14,043, in 2024; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
19 babies in 1974, the peak
Free peaked in 1974, when 19 babies were given it (7 girls, #7,138 among girls’ names). It was not recorded in 2025.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 6 | #14,043 | under 5 | |
| 2021 | 8 | #11,450 | under 5 | |
| 2020 | 7 | #12,590 | 10 | #7,696 |
| 2017 | 5 | #16,694 | under 5 | |
| 2015 | 6 | #15,126 | under 5 | |
| 2014 | 6 | #15,222 | under 5 | |
| 2012 | 5 | #17,752 | under 5 | |
| 2008 | 5 | #18,435 | under 5 | |
| 2006 | 7 | #14,063 | under 5 | |
| 2003 | 5 | #16,587 | under 5 |
Every recorded year (16)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | under 5 | 5 | #9,312 | |
| 1979 | under 5 | 5 | #6,384 | |
| 1977 | under 5 | 9 | #3,942 | |
| 1976 | under 5 | 7 | #4,579 | |
| 1975 | 9 | #6,118 | 8 | #4,067 |
| 1974 | 7 | #7,138 | 12 | #3,010 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Free a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 132 Americans recorded as Free, 58% are girls and 42% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Free: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Free, and how old are they?
An estimated 127 Americans named Free and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 9 and 51. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 327 people named Free (154 women and girls, 173 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 102 born in the U.S. The Census count is 3.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Free rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
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).
Names spelled alike
Of these 2 names spelled alike, given to 19,953 babies since 1880, Free is the second most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 1,746 babies recorded by SSA was a Free (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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.
More about Free and names like it
- Compare Free and FreyaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1970sFree peaked in 1974.
- The top names of 1974The year the most babies were named Free.
- The names of Generation XMost people named Free alive today were born 1965-1980.
- Names starting with FMost given first.