Fremont
A masculine given name deriving from a French surname meaning "freeman or free man".
Name Census estimates that about 85 living Americans carry the first name Fremont. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Fremont today is around 79 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Fremont births was 1920 (27 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Fremont. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Fremont is about 79 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Fremonts were born before 1957.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Fremont. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
85
~ 1 in 4,032,404 Americans
Peak year
1920
27 babies that year
Average age
79
years old
1971 SSA rank
#5,175
Tracked since 1882
Census
Fremont in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 168 people with the first name Fremont, which placed it at #42,627 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
#42,627
National first-name rank
People counted
168
168 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Fremont
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fremont is White at 81.0%. The next largest groups are Black (6.5%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Fremont 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 Fremont at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.0% · 136
- Black or African American6.5% · 11
- Two or more races5.4% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.0% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 3
Popularity
Fremont: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Fremont from the 1880s through to the 1970s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 166 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Fremont 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 Fremont during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Fremonts live
Origin
Meaning and history of Fremont
The given name Fremont has its origins in the Old French language. It is derived from the words "franc" meaning free, and "mont" meaning mountain or hill. The name can be roughly translated to "free mountain" or "free hill".
Historically, the name Fremont was likely given to children born in the mountainous regions of France during the Middle Ages. It may have been used to signify a sense of freedom or independence associated with those living in the rugged and remote mountain areas.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Fremont can be found in the 12th-century French epic poem, "The Song of Roland". The poem mentions a character named Fremont, who was a knight in the service of Charlemagne.
In the 16th century, a French explorer named Jean Fremont is believed to have been one of the first Europeans to explore and map parts of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes region of North America.
During the American Revolutionary War, a French-American soldier named Louis Fremont served in the Continental Army under General George Washington. He was born in 1755 and died in 1832.
In the 19th century, John C. Fremont (1813-1890) was a famous American explorer, politician, and military officer. He is often referred to as the "Pathfinder of the Rocky Mountains" for his explorations of the American West.
Another notable figure with the name Fremont was Jessie Benton Fremont (1824-1902), who was the wife of John C. Fremont and a prominent advocate for women's rights and the abolition of slavery.
The name Fremont was also used by a 20th-century American artist named Fremont Ellis (1897-1985), who was known for his landscape paintings of the American West.
People
Fremont + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Fremont 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
Fremont: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Fremont?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 85 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Fremont 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 4,032,404 US residents.
Is Fremont a common name?
We classify Fremont as "Very Rare". It ranks above 62.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 482 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Fremont most popular?
The single biggest year for Fremont was 1920, when 27 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Fremont is about 79 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Fremont in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 168 people with the name Fremont, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #42,627 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 Fremont 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 Fremont?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Fremont leans strongly male. 169 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 2 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Fremont?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Fremont is White at 81.0%. The next largest groups are Black (6.5%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Fremont most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Fremont in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.0% (136 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 Fremont in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Fremont a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Fremont 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 Fremont still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Fremont 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 Fremont 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 Fremont?
Find out how many people have the name Fremont on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.