Francoise
A feminine given name of French origin meaning "free woman".
Name Census estimates that about 441 living Americans carry the first name Francoise. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Francoise today is around 54 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Francoise births was 1967 (29 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Francoise. 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 Francoise with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
441
~ 1 in 777,221 Americans
Peak year
1967
29 babies that year
Average age
54
years old
2023 SSA rank
#15,966
Tracked since 1917
Census
Francoise in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,806 people with the first name Francoise, which placed it at #5,903 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
#5,903
National first-name rank
People counted
2.8K
2,806 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
56.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Francoise
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Francoise is White at 56.5%. The next largest groups are Black (34.1%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Francoise 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 Francoise at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White56.5% · 1,586
- Black or African American34.1% · 958
- Hispanic or Latino4.6% · 129
- Two or more races2.8% · 78
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 52
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 3
Popularity
Francoise: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Francoise from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 139 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Francoise 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 Francoise during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Francoises live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. New York, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Francoise, while Florida, California, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Francoise
Francoise is a French feminine given name derived from the Germanic name Franciscus, which itself comes from the Late Latin name Franciscus meaning "Frenchman". The name was originally used as a nickname for someone from France or as an ethnic name.
The name Franciscus was formed from the Germanic words "franc" meaning "free" or "frank" and the suffix "-isk" meaning "belonging to". This name became popular in France during the Middle Ages and was later Latinized as Franciscus.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Francoise can be found in the 13th century French epic poem, "La Chanson de Roland" (The Song of Roland), which tells the story of the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778 AD. In the poem, a character named Francoise is mentioned.
In the 16th century, Francoise de Foix (1495-1537) was a French noblewoman and the Countess of Châteaubriant. She was a prominent figure at the court of King Francis I of France and was known for her literary works.
Francoise d'Aubigné, Marquise de Maintenon (1635-1719) was a French author and the second wife of King Louis XIV of France. She played a significant role in the education of the French nobility and founded the renowned Maison Royale de Saint-Louis, a school for daughters of the impoverished nobility.
Francoise de Graffigny (1695-1758) was a French novelist and playwright, best known for her novel "Lettres d'une Péruvienne" (Letters from a Peruvian Woman), which was a significant work of the Age of Enlightenment.
Francoise Sagan (1935-2004), born Francoise Quoirez, was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. She gained international fame at the age of 18 with her first novel "Bonjour Tristesse" (Hello Sadness), which became a bestseller and was later adapted into a film.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Francoise
People
Francoise + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Francoise 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
Francoise: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Francoise?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 441 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Francoise 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 777,221 US residents.
Is Francoise a common name?
We classify Francoise as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 620 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Francoise most popular?
The single biggest year for Francoise was 1967, when 29 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Francoise is about 54 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Francoise in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,806 people with the name Francoise, or 0.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,903 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 Francoise 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 Francoise?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Francoise leans strongly female. 2,737 people counted with this name were female (97.9%), compared with 60 male bearers (2.1%). 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 Francoise?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Francoise is White at 56.5%. The next largest groups are Black (34.1%) and Hispanic (4.6%). 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 Francoise most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Francoise in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.5% (1,586 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 Francoise in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Francoise a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Francoise 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 Francoise still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Francoise 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 Francoise 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 are named Francoise?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.