Francisco
A masculine name of Portuguese origin meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 124,477 living Americans carry the first name Francisco. It sits at #307 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (99.3% of registrations). The average person named Francisco today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Francisco births was 1993 (2,994 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Francisco. 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 Francisco with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Francisco is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 954 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
124K
~ 1 in 2,754 Americans
Peak year
1993
2,994 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#307
Tracked since 1880
Census
Francisco in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 246,224 people with the first name Francisco, which placed it at #226 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
#226
National first-name rank
People counted
246K
246,224 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
81.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
94.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Francisco
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Francisco is Hispanic at 94.9%. The next largest groups are White (2.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.7%). 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 Francisco 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 Francisco at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino94.9% · 233,655
- White2.5% · 6,234
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 4,251
- Black or African American0.5% · 1,182
- Two or more races0.2% · 455
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 447
Gender
Gender distribution for Francisco
Out of the 142,071 babies given the name Francisco since 1880, 99.3% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Francisco as a male name
- Ranked #307 in 2024
- 1,104 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (2,966 births)
Francisco as a female name
- Ranked #15,768 in 2006
- 6 female births in 2006
- Peak: 1990 (32 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Francisco appears almost entirely male. Of the 246,232 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Francisco: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Francisco from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 28,950 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Francisco 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 Francisco during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Franciscos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 42 states and territories. California, Texas, Arizona recorded the most babies named Francisco, while Delaware, Mississippi, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,270 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Francisco
The given name Francisco has its origins in the Latin language, deriving from the Germanic name Franciscus. It is believed to have emerged in the late Roman era, around the 4th or 5th century AD. The name is thought to be a compound of the Germanic elements "franc," meaning free or frank, and "iscus," a diminutive suffix.
One of the earliest and most notable historical references to the name Francisco can be found in the life of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226), the Italian Catholic friar and preacher who founded the Franciscan Order. St. Francis, whose birth name was Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, was given the nickname "Francesco" by his father, a wealthy cloth merchant, possibly due to his interest in French culture and language.
Throughout history, the name Francisco has been borne by numerous notable individuals across various fields. One of the earliest recorded examples is Francisco Petrarca (1304-1374), an Italian scholar, poet, and one of the earliest humanists of the Renaissance period. Another influential figure was Francisco de Vitoria (1483-1546), a Spanish Renaissance philosopher and theologian who is considered a founder of international law.
In the realm of exploration and discovery, Francisco Pizarro (1476-1541) was a Spanish conquistador who led the expedition that resulted in the conquest of the Inca Empire in modern-day Peru. Francisco Vásquez de Coronado (1510-1554), a Spanish explorer, is known for his expedition in search of the Seven Cities of Cibola, which led to the exploration of the southwestern United States.
The name has also been associated with artistic and literary figures, such as Francisco Goya (1746-1828), the renowned Spanish romantic painter and printmaker, and Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645), a Spanish poet and satirist considered one of the most prominent figures of the Spanish Golden Age.
These are just a few examples of the many notable individuals throughout history who have borne the name Francisco, a name with rich cultural and historical significance, originating from the Latin language and carrying a sense of frankness and freedom.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Francisco
People
Francisco + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Francisco 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
Francisco: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Francisco?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 124,477 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Francisco 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 2,754 US residents.
Is Francisco a common name?
We classify Francisco as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 142,071 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Francisco most popular?
The single biggest year for Francisco was 1993, when 2,994 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Francisco is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Francisco in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 246,224 people with the name Francisco, or 81.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #226 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 Francisco 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 Francisco?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Francisco appears almost entirely male. Of the 246,232 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Francisco?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Francisco is Hispanic at 94.9%. The next largest groups are White (2.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.7%). 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 Francisco most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Francisco in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.9% (233,655 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 Francisco in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Francisco a male name?
Yes, 99.3% of people registered as Francisco in the SSA data are male. 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 Francisco still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Francisco 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 Francisco 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 have Francisco as a first name?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.