Federico
Meaning
peaceful ruler; famously borne by Federico García Lorca, Spanish poet and playwright
Goes by Fede, Rico
Famously borne by Uruguay's Federico Valverde.
The story
Federico is the Italian and Spanish form of Frederick, an old Germanic name meaning peaceful ruler, carried by emperors and kings before it softened into the melodic four syllables of the Romance languages. Its greatest modern bearer is Federico García Lorca, the Spanish poet and playwright whose Gypsy Ballads and Blood Wedding made him the most celebrated Spanish writer of his generation before he was killed in 1936, in the first weeks of the Spanish Civil War. Film lovers may think instead of Federico Fellini, the Italian director. In American records the name tells a quieter story: a steady, modest presence for a full century, kept alive in Italian American and Latino families, with a gentle rise since the 1990s. Federico today reads as warm, unhurried, and unmistakably literary.
Federico around the world
One shared root links 6 names across 3 languages.
Shared root: from Germanic frid "peace" + ric "ruler", a German royal staple the English re-imported with the Hanoverians
The constellation
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Federico peaked in the 1990s and the 2020s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
1,144 people · the #7,558 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 166,667 · median age 38
Among people named Federico living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
The census also counted 42 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Federico
People given the name Federico in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1960 to 2009. Age is the one thing the name won't tell you.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Federico deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Federico truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Federico fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Nicknames for Federico · Names of poets and writers · Names of soccer legends
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