Franko
A masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "free man".
Name Census estimates that about 319 living Americans carry the first name Franko. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Franko today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Franko births was 2016 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Franko. 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 Franko with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
319
~ 1 in 1,074,465 Americans
Peak year
2016
21 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,513
Tracked since 1975
Census
Franko in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 475 people with the first name Franko, which placed it at #21,400 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
#21,400
National first-name rank
People counted
475
475 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
54.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Franko
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Franko is Hispanic at 54.9%. The next largest groups are White (32.8%) and Black (8.2%). 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 Franko 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 Franko at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino54.9% · 261
- White32.8% · 156
- Black or African American8.2% · 39
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 11
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 4
- Two or more races0.8% · 4
Popularity
Franko: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Franko from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 125 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Franko remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Franko 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 Franko during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Frankos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Franko, while Florida, California, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 9 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Franko
The name Franko is derived from the Germanic name Franko, meaning "free" or "frank". It originated in the region of Franconia, a historic region in modern-day Germany, during the Middle Ages.
The name is believed to have been first used by the Franks, a group of Germanic tribes that settled in the region of Gaul, which later became part of modern-day France and Germany. The Franks played a significant role in the history of Europe during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Franko can be found in the Carolingian dynasty, a Frankish noble family that ruled the Frankish kingdoms and later the Holy Roman Empire during the 8th and 9th centuries. Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great (742-814), was a member of this dynasty and is considered one of the most influential rulers of the Middle Ages.
Another notable figure with the name Franko was Franko of Cologne (c. 1145-1225), a German churchman and author who wrote several theological works and served as the provost of the collegiate church of St. Andrew in Cologne.
During the Renaissance period, Franko Sacchetti (c. 1335-1400) was an Italian poet and writer from Florence. He is best known for his collection of novellas, "Il Trecentonovelle", which provided valuable insights into the social and cultural life of 14th-century Italy.
In the 19th century, Franko Prešeren (1800-1849) was a renowned Slovenian poet and the author of the Slovenian national epic poem "Krst pri Savici". He is considered one of the most influential figures in Slovenian literature and is regarded as the national poet of Slovenia.
Another notable figure with the name Franko was Franko Simatović (1949-), a former Serbian police officer and paramilitary leader who was convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for crimes against humanity committed during the Bosnian War in the 1990s.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the name Franko, which has its roots in the ancient Germanic tribes and has been used across various cultures and time periods.
People
Franko + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Franko 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
Franko: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Franko?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 319 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Franko 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 1,074,465 US residents.
Is Franko a common name?
We classify Franko as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 324 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Franko most popular?
The single biggest year for Franko was 2016, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Franko is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Franko in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 475 people with the name Franko, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,400 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 Franko 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 Franko?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Franko leans strongly male. 471 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 8 female bearers (1.7%). 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 Franko?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Franko is Hispanic at 54.9%. The next largest groups are White (32.8%) and Black (8.2%). 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 Franko most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Franko in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.9% (261 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 Franko in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Franko a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Franko 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 Franko still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Franko 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 Franko 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 Americans are named Franko?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Franko at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.