# Friedman (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/friedman/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from German.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | German |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 38,374 |
| US rank (2010) | 901 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 8,046 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.2% (36,833 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈfriːdmən/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | Friedmann, Freedman |

## Etymology

Borrowed from German Friedmann, from German Fried (“peace”) + Mann (“man”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Friedman in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 96% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.4% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 1.9% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.6% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.1% |
| Two or more races | 0.9% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Friedman in the United States, Canada, the Russian Empire, the United Kingdom and Czechoslovakia.

## People named Friedman

- Milton Friedman, American economist and statistician (1912–2006)
- Jerome Isaac Friedman, American physicist
- Thomas Friedman, American journalist and author
- Marty Friedman, American guitarist
- David D. Friedman, American economist, physicist, legal scholar, and libertarian theorist
- George Friedman, American businessman and political scientist
- Stanton T. Friedman, American ufologist (1934–2019)
- Herbert Friedman, American physicist (1916-2000)
- Peter Friedman, American actor
- Maxwell Jacob Friedman, American professional wrestler
- Nat Friedman, American computer programmer
- Rose Friedman, American economist (1910–2009)

and 24 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Freedman, Friedmann, Fridman, Fortner, Fortune, Fortin, Fortenberry, Fortney, Fordham, Fortunato, Fortuna, Farthing.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.