Francine
A feminine French form of the Late Latin name Franciscus meaning "Frenchman or free man".
Name Census estimates that about 24,522 living Americans carry the first name Francine. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Francine today is around 61 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Francine births was 1951 (1,143 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Francine. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Francine with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Francine have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
25K
~ 1 in 13,977 Americans
Peak year
1951
1,143 babies that year
Average age
61
years old
1964 SSA rank
#2,069
Tracked since 1900
Census
Francine in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 29,532 people with the first name Francine, which placed it at #1,263 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,263
National first-name rank
People counted
30K
29,532 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
9.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Francine
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Francine is White at 63.5%. The next largest groups are Black (20.2%) and Hispanic (8.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Francine described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Francine at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.5% · 18,748
- Black or African American20.2% · 5,963
- Hispanic or Latino8.9% · 2,637
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.4% · 1,001
- Two or more races2.3% · 675
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 508
Gender
Gender distribution for Francine
Out of the 36,373 babies given the name Francine since 1880, 100.0% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Francine as a male name
- Ranked #4,251 in 1964
- 5 male births in 1964
- Peak: 1960 (6 births)
Francine as a female name
- Ranked #2,069 in 2024
- 93 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1951 (1,143 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Francine appears almost entirely female. Of the 29,531 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Francine: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Francine from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 10,203 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Francine by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Francine during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Francines live
The SSA's state-level files cover 48 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Francine, while Alaska, Montana, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 657 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Francine
The given name Francine has its origins in the Late Latin name Francisca, which was the feminine form of the male name Franciscus. Franciscus itself was derived from the Germanic name Franko, meaning "free" or "Frankish." This connection to the Frankish people places the name's earliest roots in what is now modern-day France and Germany, dating back to the 6th century AD.
Francine and its variants, such as Francesca and Franziska, gained popularity throughout Europe during the Middle Ages. One of the earliest recorded uses of the name can be found in the 13th-century French epic poem "The Song of Roland," which mentions a character named Francine, the daughter of a Frankish nobleman.
In the religious sphere, Saint Francine was a 5th-century martyr from Rome who was venerated by the Catholic Church. Her name and story may have contributed to the name's dissemination across Christian communities.
During the Renaissance, the name Francine became particularly popular in Italy, where it was borne by several notable figures. Francine Caccini (1587-1640) was an Italian composer, singer, and poet, considered one of the first professional female composers of the Baroque era.
In the 17th century, Francine Pascal (1623-1687) was a French mathematician and philosopher who made significant contributions to the development of probability theory and the philosophy of mathematics.
Moving to the 19th century, Francine Clary (1777-1835) was the wife of Joseph Bonaparte, the older brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, and briefly served as Queen of Naples during the Napoleonic Wars.
In more recent history, Francine Houben (born 1955) is a Dutch architect and founder of the architectural firm Mecanoo, renowned for her innovative and sustainable designs.
Francine Niyonsaba (born 1993) is a Burundian middle-distance runner and Olympic silver medalist, known for her success in the 800 meters and 5,000 meters events.
People
Francine + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Francine as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with F
Other first names starting with F with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Francine: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Francine?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 24,522 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Francine going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 13,977 US residents.
Is Francine a common name?
We classify Francine as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 36,373 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Francine most popular?
The single biggest year for Francine was 1951, when 1,143 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Francine is about 61 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Francine in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 29,532 people with the name Francine, or 9.78 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,263 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Francine in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Francine?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Francine appears almost entirely female. Of the 29,531 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Francine?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Francine is White at 63.5%. The next largest groups are Black (20.2%) and Hispanic (8.9%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Francine most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Francine in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.5% (18,748 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Francine in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Francine a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Francine in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Francine still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Francine in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Francine can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people share the name Francine?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.