Skip to content
Name Lineage

    The surname Frankenstein

    A German surname, carried by 332 people in the United States.

    Pronounced /ˈfɹæŋ.kən.staɪn/ 3 syllables Soundex F652

    Frankenstein: #60,636 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Frankenstein #60,636, 332 people Frankenstein: #60,636 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#100Jimenez Frankenstein #60,636, 332 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Frankenstein is more common than 62.6% of them.

    Origin

    German origin

    From German Frankenstein, various places named for Franken (“Franks, Frankish”) + Stein (“stone”). The use of referencing mad scientists derives from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, where Victor Frankenstein assembles a man from pieces of various corpses and brings him to life with electricity. Use of the reference to the monster itself is an ellipsis of the earlier Frankenstein's monster, with the monster's usual modern appearance derived from Boris Karloff's performance in the 1931 film Frankenstein.

    One of 1,101 German surnames on this site.

    Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

    How common it is

    2010 US Census

    There were 332 people named Frankenstein in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 929,956 Americans. That is down 3.8% since 2000, when the Census counted 345.

    #60,636
    rank among US surnames
    332
    people in 2010
    0.1
    per 100,000 Americans
    -3.8%
    change since 2000 (was #55,609)

    Who is named Frankenstein

    Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

    95% of people named Frankenstein identified as white (not Hispanic), 3.0% as two or more races.

    • White (not Hispanic) 95%
    • Two or more races 3.0%
    The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Hispanic, Asian & Pacific Islander, Native American are not shown.

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Frankenstein

    Frankenstein has the Soundex code F652, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code F652.

    Other German surnames

    All 1,101 German surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Frankenstein come from?
    From German Frankenstein, various places named for Franken (“Franks, Frankish”) + Stein (“stone”). The use of referencing mad scientists derives from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, where Victor Frankenstein assembles a man from pieces of various corpses and…
    How common is the surname Frankenstein?
    332 people in the United States had the surname Frankenstein in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 929,956 Americans. It ranked 60,636th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Frankenstein?
    In the 2010 Census, 95% of people named Frankenstein identified as white (not Hispanic), and 3.0% as two or more races.
    How do you pronounce Frankenstein?
    Frankenstein is /ˈfɹæŋ.kən.staɪn/, 3 syllables.
    Is the surname Frankenstein getting more or less common?
    Less common. 345 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 332 in 2010, down 3.8%.