Frederick
Meaning
peaceful ruler
Famously borne by the reigning King Frederik X of Denmark.
The story
Frederick is Germanic, the peaceful ruler, and it is one of the ledger's true giants: about 261,500 American boys across the record, with a crest of 44,400 in the 1950s and five-figure decades without a break from the 1910s through the 1980s. Its most towering American bearer chose the name himself: Frederick Douglass, born enslaved and unnamed by law, took Frederick as a free man and made it synonymous with eloquence and courage. The long vintage fade ran to about 5,500 in the 2010s, and this decade holds 4,000 so far with years to run. Fred, the everyday form, carries about 330,000 and its own story here; Freddie and Freddy wait inside. A ruler in the root, an orator in the record, and a curve that spent a century earning the word classic.
Frederick 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. Frederick peaked in the 1890s and the 1910s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
612 people · the #11,636 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 333,333 · median age 33
Among people named Frederick living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1980s than in any other decade.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Frederick
People given the name Frederick in the United States span the generations: the middle half were born anywhere from 1950 to 1989. 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 Frederick deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Frederick 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 Frederick fits with your family’s names and surname.
Keep exploring
Nicknames for Frederick · African American baby names · Names of revolutionaries and liberators · Names of kings and queens
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