Frances
given name · Latin script
Meaning: from OFr Franceis, modFr François, originally ‘a Frank’, later ‘a Frenchman’; first attested Hugo Francus, Franceis 1135 Oseney (Oxfordshire)
Recorded as a female name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise
/fɹænsɪz/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Frances is a given name written in the Latin script, with more bearers in China than in any other country. In the Netherlands it is the 44th most common given name.
- IEIreland≈1 in 739(inferred from the name graph)
- NZNew Zealand≈1 in 765
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 850
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). Where a country counts another spelling of the name rather than Frances itself, the figure is that spelling’s, and it is named. One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- China (inferred from the name graph)
- #376 (measured from records)
- 5 (measured from records)
- Sources
- 556 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 739 (inferred from the name graph)
≈1,600,000 people, est.
of 15M given names
recorded for this name
Highest-authority source
Ireland, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Spellings & scripts(measured from records)
Locally spelled Frans in NL Netherlands, ZA South Africa, SE Sweden.
Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
from OFr Franceis, modFr François, originally ‘a Frank’, later ‘a Frenchman’; first attested Hugo Francus, Franceis 1135 Oseney (Oxfordshire)
Sources 1
- A Dictionary of English Surnames
Attested across 9 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Frances counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN China | — | ≈1,600,000 est. | ≈1 in 886 | — | Frances | 56 |
| US United States | #164 | 201,693 | 1 in 1.6K | 200K | Frances | 556 |
| GB United Kingdom | #149 | ≈77,000 est. | ≈1 in 850 | 5 | Frances | 286 |
| ZA South Africa | #131 | ≈47,000 est. | ≈1 in 1.2K | — | Frans | 83 |
| EG Egypt | #828 | ≈42,000 est. | ≈1 in 2.5K | — | Frances | 25 |
| SE Sweden | #739 | 12,150as Frans | 1 in 840 | 12K | Frans | 68 |
| IE Ireland | #105 | ≈7,000 est. | ≈1 in 739 | — | Frances | 111 |
| NZ New Zealand | #111 | ≈6,400 est. | ≈1 in 765 | 17 | Frances | 133 |
| NL Netherlands | #44 | 12as Frâns | 1 in 1.4M | 14K | Frans | 161 |
Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017); Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Frances is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, Feminine form of Francis; used in Ireland and once popular; Fanny anglicised Fainche.
as a nameIrish first names
In English, From France or free woman; feminine form of Francis; French
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
In English, Feminine form of Francis; from Latin Franciscus.
as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…
In English, A female given name from Latin, masculine equivalent Francis.
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
English: feminine form of FRANCIS . In the 16th century the two spellings were used indiscriminately for both sexes, the distinction in spelling not being established until the 17th century. Short form: Fran. Pet form: Fanny .
as a word
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- Frances Marionb. 1888USAmerican journalist, author, film director and screenwriter (1888-1973)
- Nancy Reaganb. 1921USnot in their usual nameFirst Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989
- Judy Garlandb. 1922USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, singer, dancer and vaudevillian (1922–1969)
- Debbie Reynoldsb. 1932USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, singer, and dancer (1932–2016)
- Anne Riceb. 1941USnot in their usual nameAmerican author (1941–2021)
- Carrie Fisherb. 1956USnot in their usual nameAmerican actress, writer and screenwriter (1956–2016)
- Frances Arnoldb. 1956USNobel prize winning US scientist and engineer (born 1956)
- Frances McDormandb. 1957USAmerican actress
- Diana, Princess of Walesb. 1961GBnot in their usual namemember of the British royal family and Princess of Wales (1961–1997)
- Lucy Lawlessb. 1968NZnot in their usual nameNew Zealand actress
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 89 sources across 40 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 200K | #273 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex | 2020 | 1.7K | #273 |
| SE Sweden | Skatteverket — Sök hur många som har ett visst namn (living population) | — | 1K | #1,663 |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 960 | — |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 477 | #3,304 |
| SE Sweden | SCB — Namnstatistik (to 2023) | 2020 | 230 | — |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 2025 | 17 | — |
| NL Netherlands | Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (live per-name BRP counts, 1790-2017) | — | 11 | #27,267 |
| NZ New Zealand | DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present) | 1904 | 10 | — |
| US United States | SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) | 2025 | 6 | — |
| GB United Kingdom | NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present) | 2024 | 5 | #541 |
Reference works 6
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Nişanyan Adlar (Turkish given-name national-registry frequency)
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Frances a male or female name?
- Frances is recorded for both men and women. We don't publish a percentage split: a record's gender belongs to the person and is attached to every given name on that record, so names in cultures where a name string also carries a parent's or spouse's given name pick up large cross-gender counts.
- What does the name Frances mean, and where does it come from?
- from OFr Franceis, modFr François, originally ‘a Frank’, later ‘a Frenchman’; first attested Hugo Francus, Franceis 1135 Oseney (Oxfordshire) Recorded by A Dictionary of English Surnames.
- What are other forms of the name Frances?
- In the etymology graph, Francisca, Francesca and Francine are forms of the same name in other languages; Fanny, Sissy and Frannie are recorded short or pet forms.
- In which country does Frances have the most bearers?
- Mondonomo estimates about 1.6 million people named Frances in China, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled frances.
- How common is the name Frances?
- In the United States, the national register counted 201,693 people named Frances in 2020, about 1 in 1.6 thousand residents.
- How common is Frances compared with other names?
- In the Netherlands, Frances is the 44th most common given name of 101,916 given names recorded there.
- How do you pronounce Frances?
- A machine transcription gives /fɹænsɪz/ (IPA) for English.
What do you want to know about Frances?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/francesThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Frances” — the 44th most common given name in Netherlands. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.