# François (first name)

Source: https://namelineage.com/first-name/francois/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. US counts from the Social Security Administration; England and Wales counts from the Office for National Statistics; meaning and etymology from Wiktionary. Data updated 2026-11-11.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Usually given to | boys |
| Origin | French |
| Meaning | not recorded |
| Pronunciation | /fɹænswɑ/, 2 syllables |
| Nicknames | none recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |
| US babies named this | 1,823 since 1880 |
| Boys / girls in the US | 1,818 / 5 (0% girls) |
| Babies in England and Wales | 101, 1996 to 2025 |

## Etymology

Borrowed from French François, from Medieval Latin Franciscus (from Francia + -iscus).

## Popularity

The last 15 years of each series. A year is missing when too few babies were given the name for the agency to publish it: five in the US, three in England and Wales.

### United States, girls

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 5 | 12,428 |

### United States, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 17 | 5,278 |
| 2012 | 11 | 7,207 |
| 2013 | 12 | 6,745 |
| 2014 | 16 | 5,555 |
| 2015 | 20 | 4,772 |
| 2016 | 15 | 5,875 |
| 2017 | 15 | 5,887 |
| 2018 | 16 | 5,615 |
| 2019 | 14 | 6,205 |
| 2020 | 14 | 6,072 |
| 2021 | 13 | 6,442 |
| 2022 | 10 | 7,949 |
| 2023 | 12 | 7,039 |
| 2024 | 13 | 6,579 |
| 2025 | 18 | 5,276 |

### England and Wales, boys

| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 8 | 1,991 |
| 2006 | 3 | 4,052 |
| 2007 | 7 | 2,435 |
| 2008 | 8 | 2,276 |
| 2010 | 5 | 3,332 |
| 2012 | 3 | 4,805 |
| 2013 | 4 | 3,822 |
| 2015 | 3 | 4,747 |
| 2016 | 9 | 2,335 |
| 2017 | 5 | 3,449 |
| 2020 | 3 | 4,608 |
| 2021 | 3 | 4,789 |
| 2022 | 3 | 4,789 |
| 2023 | 3 | 4,991 |
| 2024 | 3 | 5,119 |

## People named François

- François Mitterrand, 21st President of the French Republic from 1981 to 1995 (1916–1996)
- François Rabelais, 16th-century French writer and humanist (1494–1553)
- François Mauriac, French writer (1885-1970)
- François de La Rochefoucauld, French author of maxims and memoirs (1613-1680)
- François Truffaut, French film director (1932–1984)
- François Villon, French poet and criminal
- François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand, French writer, politician and historian (1768–1848)
- François Arago, French mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician (1786-1853)
- François Fénelon, French archbishop, theologian and writer (1651–1715)
- François Jacob, French biologist and geneticist, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1965
- François Guizot, French historian, orator and statesman (1787–1874)
- François Quesnay, French economist (1694–1774)

## How to read these numbers

A count is babies registered with that name in that year, not people alive now, so a name common a century ago can have a large total and few recent births.