Fredric
A masculine given name derived from an Old German name meaning "peaceful ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 4,708 living Americans carry the first name Fredric. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Fredric today is around 63 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Fredric births was 1947 (223 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Fredric. 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 Fredric with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.7K
~ 1 in 72,803 Americans
Peak year
1947
223 babies that year
Average age
63
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,254
Tracked since 1881
Census
Fredric in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,968 people with the first name Fredric, which placed it at #3,931 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
#3,931
National first-name rank
People counted
5.0K
4,968 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Fredric
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fredric is White at 82.9%. The next largest groups are Black (10.3%) and Hispanic (2.8%). 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 Fredric 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 Fredric at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.9% · 4,116
- Black or African American10.3% · 514
- Hispanic or Latino2.8% · 137
- Two or more races2.0% · 99
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 76
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 26
Popularity
Fredric: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Fredric from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 1,887 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Fredric 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 Fredric during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Fredrics live
The SSA's state-level files cover 28 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Fredric, while Virginia, Tennessee, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 161 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Fredric
The name Fredric originates from the Germanic language and culture, deriving from the Old High German words "fridu" meaning "peace" and "ric" meaning "power" or "ruler." It is a variation of the name Frederick, which has its roots in the 5th century AD. The name spread throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, particularly in regions influenced by Germanic tribes and the Frankish Empire.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Fredric can be found in the 8th century Carolingian chronicles, referring to Fredric, the son of King Pepin the Short. During the reign of Charlemagne, the name gained prominence and was associated with nobility and royalty.
In the 11th century, the name Fredric appeared in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record of the Anglo-Saxon people in Britain. The entry mentions a nobleman named Fredric who accompanied William the Conqueror during the Norman conquest of England in 1066.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Fredric. One of the most famous was Fredric Barbarossa (1122-1190), a German emperor of the Holy Roman Empire during the 12th century. He was renowned for his military campaigns and efforts to consolidate imperial power.
Another prominent figure was Fredric the Great (1712-1786), the King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786. He was a skilled military strategist and an influential patron of the arts and Enlightenment philosophy.
In the realm of literature, Fredric Mistral (1830-1914) was a French writer and lexicographer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1904 for his contributions to Provençal literature.
The world of music has also seen its share of notable Fredrics, such as Fredric Chopin (1810-1849), the renowned Polish composer and pianist whose works are celebrated for their technical brilliance and emotional depth.
Finally, Fredric Nietzsche (1844-1900), the German philosopher, is widely recognized as one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century, known for his groundbreaking works on morality, culture, and the human condition.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Fredric
People
Fredric + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Fredric 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
Fredric: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Fredric?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,708 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Fredric 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 72,803 US residents.
Is Fredric a common name?
We classify Fredric as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,379 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Fredric most popular?
The single biggest year for Fredric was 1947, when 223 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Fredric is about 63 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Fredric in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,968 people with the name Fredric, or 1.64 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,931 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 Fredric 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 Fredric?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Fredric appears almost entirely male. Of the 4,962 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Fredric?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fredric is White at 82.9%. The next largest groups are Black (10.3%) and Hispanic (2.8%). 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 Fredric most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Fredric in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.9% (4,116 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 Fredric in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Fredric a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Fredric 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 Fredric still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Fredric 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 Fredric 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 called Fredric?
Find out how many Americans are named Fredric on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.