Franziska
A feminine form of Francis, of German origin meaning free one.
Name Census estimates that about 192 living Americans carry the first name Franziska. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Franziska today is around 29 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Franziska births was 2006 (12 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Franziska. 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 Franziska with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
192
~ 1 in 1,785,179 Americans
Peak year
2006
12 babies that year
Average age
29
years old
2018 SSA rank
#14,401
Tracked since 1963
Census
Franziska in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 872 people with the first name Franziska, which placed it at #13,735 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
#13,735
National first-name rank
People counted
872
872 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
94.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Franziska
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Franziska is White at 94.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.1%) and Two or More Races (1.6%). 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 Franziska 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 Franziska at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White94.0% · 820
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 27
- Two or more races1.6% · 14
- Black or African American0.9% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.2% · 2
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Franziska: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Franziska from the 1960s through to the 2010s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 57 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Franziska remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Franziska 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 Franziska during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Franziska
The name Franziska originates from the German language and is the feminine form of the male name Franz, which is derived from the Germanic name Franciscus. Franciscus, in turn, comes from the Latin word "Francus," meaning "Frank" or "Frenchman."
The name Franziska gained popularity during the Middle Ages, particularly in German-speaking regions of Europe. It was often associated with St. Francis of Assisi, the Italian Catholic friar and preacher who lived in the 12th and 13th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Franziska can be found in the "Sachsenspiegel," a medieval German law code compiled in the 13th century. The text mentions a woman named Franziska von Staufen, who lived during that time period.
Throughout history, several notable women have borne the name Franziska. One of the most famous was Franziska von Hohenheim (1493-1543), also known as Franziska von Sickingen, a German noblewoman and military leader who played a significant role in the German Peasants' War.
Another prominent Franziska was Franziska Blucher (1788-1846), the wife of the Prussian field marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher, who was a key figure in the Napoleonic Wars.
In the realm of literature, Franziska Gräfin zu Reventlow (1871-1918) was a German writer and feminist who gained recognition for her novels and plays that explored themes of gender and social inequality.
Franziska Elvenfeldt Mayer (1871-1952) was a German-American artist and photographer known for her pioneering work in the field of color photography.
Franziska Tiburtius (1843-1927) was a German physician and one of the first women to practice medicine in Germany, paving the way for future female doctors in the country.
People
Franziska + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Franziska 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
Franziska: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Franziska?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 192 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Franziska 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 1,785,179 US residents.
Is Franziska a common name?
We classify Franziska as "Very Rare". It ranks above 73.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 200 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Franziska most popular?
The single biggest year for Franziska was 2006, when 12 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Franziska is about 29 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Franziska in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 872 people with the name Franziska, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,735 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 Franziska 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 Franziska?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Franziska appears almost entirely female. Of the 876 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 Franziska?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Franziska is White at 94.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (3.1%) and Two or More Races (1.6%). 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 Franziska most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Franziska in the 2020 Census, accounting for 94.0% (820 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 Franziska in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Franziska a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Franziska 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 Franziska still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Franziska 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 Franziska 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 the name Franziska?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Franziska, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.