The FRANKLIN surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	114,859	236	0.043	426
United States (1880 census)	23,872	215	0.048	477
Change since 1880	+90987	-21	-0.005	-51
Other Countries
Australia	3,671	402	0.022	225
United Kingdom	13,597	431	0.03	296

Top States for FRANKLIN by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Texas	11,423	211	0.055	548
California	8,386	399	0.025	248
Florida	6,558	275	0.041	410
Georgia	5,459	173	0.067	667
Tennessee	5,377	130	0.095	945
Top States for FRANKLIN by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Alabama	5,055	109	0.114	1,137
Louisiana	4,666	106	0.104	1,044
Tennessee	5,377	130	0.095	945
Mississippi	2,255	179	0.079	793
Arkansas	1,913	168	0.072	716

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called FRANKLIN live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called FRANKLIN represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called FRANKLIN in Texas than any other state, but you are more likely to find a FRANKLIN by picking someone at random in Alabama than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of FRANKLIN

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Status Name

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the FRANKLIN surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the FRANKLIN surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of FRANKLIN in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
Native American/Alaskan	999	0.87
Asian/Pacific	517	0.45
White (Caucasian)	65,722	57.22
Black/African American	43,394	37.78
Mixed Race	2,251	1.96
White (Hispanic)	1,964	1.71

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the FRANKLIN surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of FRANKLIN in historical publications

Anciently, in England, a "superior freeholder," next below gentlemen in dignity, now called country Squires. Fortescue says (De Leg. Ang.), "Moreover England is so filled and replenished with landed menne, that therein the smallest thorpe can not be found wherin dwelleth not a knight or an esquire, or such a householder as is there commonly called a Franklin, enriched with great possessions, and also other freeholders, and many yeomen, able for their livelyhood to make a jury in form aforementioned." So Chaucer, in his Canterbury Tales; "A Franklin was in this companie, White was his beard, as is the dayesie."

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

FRANKLIN. In the H.R. Franckleyn, Franlielain (with and without the prefix Le), Franklanus, &c. Halliwell's definition is " a large freeholder." Properly the son or descendant of a vilein, who had become rich; but the term was also applied to farmers and country gentlemen of inconsiderable pjoperty. Chaucer's description, however, makes the Franklin a much more important personage. See Eng. Sum., i. 127-8.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Similar names to FRANKLIN

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as FRANKLIN.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.