Francis

Where Francis comes from

Borrowed from Medieval Latin Franciscus (“French(man)”) (from Francia (“France”)). Doublet of Francisco and Franz.
— Wiktionary's entry for Francis
  • Latin
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1540
    Francis Drake born
    English sailor and privateer
  2. 1561
    Francis Bacon born
    English philosopher and statesman
  3. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #50 among boys — 344 babies in the first year on record.
  4. 1915
    Peak, #29
    5,594 babies named Francis — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1958
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #135.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Latin.
  • A female given name from Latin, alternative spelling of Frances.
  • A placename
  • A township in Holt County, Nebraska.
Namesakes
  • Francis Bacon · English philosopher and statesman, 1561–1626
  • Francis Drake · English sailor and privateer, 1540–1596
  • Francis Ford Coppola · American filmmaker, born 1939
  • Francis Crick · British molecular biologist, biophysicist, neuroscientist; co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, 1916–2004
  • Francis Fukuyama · American political scientist, political economist, and author, born 1952

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.