How popular is the baby name Francis in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Francis.
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Tuesday’s post about the Victorian-style Tylney Hall Hotel reminded me of a list of Victorian-era names that I’ve had bookmarked forever.
The list was created by amateur genealogist G. M. Atwater as a resource for writers. It contains names and name combinations that were commonly seen in the U.S. from the 1840s to the 1890s. Below is the full list (with a few minor changes).
| Victorian Era Female Names | Victorian Era Male Names |
|---|---|
|
|
Which female name and male name do you like best?
Hollywood talent agent Henry Willson — the man behind the beefcake craze of the 1950s — liked to invent snappy stage names for his clients. “Catchy, iterative, marquee-size monikers were his trademark.”
And several of his clients (such as Troy Donahue, and Tab Hunter) went on to achieve so much fame that they, in turn, had an influence on U.S. baby names.
Here are some of the names that Willson came up with (or helped come up with):
| Stage name | Real name |
| Chad Everett | Raymon Cramton |
| Dack & Dirk Rambo | Norman & Orman Rambo (twins) |
| Guy Madison | Robert Moseley |
| John Saxon | Carmine Orrico |
| Rhonda Fleming | Marilyn Louis |
| Rock Hudson | Roy Fitzgerald |
| Rory Calhoun | Francis McCown |
| Tab Hunter | Arthur Gelien |
| Touch Connors (later known as Mike Connors) | Krekor Ohanian |
| Troy Donahue | Merle Johnson |
| Ty Hungerford (later known as Ty Hardin) | Orison Hungerford |
| Yale Summers | Roy Neuvohner |
Red-headed Rhonda Fleming’s surname was chosen because it sounded like the word flaming.
Speaking of flames, Rory Calhoun’s first name was inspired by Francis McCown’s brief stint as a firefighter (i.e., “roaring blazes”).
Which group of names do you prefer, the stage names (on the left) or the real names (on the right)?
Sources:
Image: Clipping from Modern Screen (Oct. 1946)
[Latest update: Oct. 2025]
Here are the results of the 2013 pop culture baby name game!
But I’m writing them up a bit differently this year — I’m only focusing on 20 big winners.
How did I choose these 20? First, I eliminated all the names that didn’t see increased usage in 2013. Then I eliminated the names that saw relatively small increases in usage. Then I eliminated the names that saw more or less expected increases in usage, given their trajectories.
That left me with about 20 names that became more popular in 2013 due mainly (in some cases entirely) to pop culture influence.
The links will take you to popularity graphs.
1. Jace
2. Lincoln
3. Ariana
4. Everly
5. Kendrick
6. Milan
7. George
8. Francis
9. Bruno
10. Paul
11. Robin
12. Diamond
13. Wendy
14. Nori
15. Primrose
16. Marnie
17. Rainbow
18. Kitai
19. Sansa
20. Malala
Did any of the above surprise you?
The image above, of the Boulevard du Temple in Paris, was captured in early 1838 by Louis Daguerre, inventor of the daguerreotype.
It may be the earliest surviving photograph of a person. Two people, actually. Both are in the lower left.
Here’s a close-up:
The standing man is getting his shoe shined, and the other man (partially obscured) is doing the shoe-shining.
Of all the people on the sidewalk that day, these were the only two to stay still long enough (about 10 minutes) to be captured in the image.
Now for the fun part!
What would you name these two Frenchmen?
Let’s pretend you’re writing a book set in Paris in the 1830s, and these are two of your characters. What names would you give them?
Here’s a long list of traditional French male names, to get you started:
| Abel Absolon Achille Adam Adolphe Adrien Aimé Alain Alban Albert Alexandre Alfred Alphonse Amaury Amroise Amédée Anatole André Anselme Antoine Antonin Apollinaire Ariel Aristide Armand Arnaud Arsène Arthur Aubert Aubin Auguste Augustin Aurèle Aurélien Baptiste Barnabé Barthélémy Basile Bastien Benjamin Benoit Bernard Bertrand Blaise Boniface Bruno Calixte Camille Céleste Célestin Césaire César Charles Christian Christophe | Clair Claude Clément Clovis Constant Constantin Corentin Corin Corneille Cosme Cyril Damien Daniel David Denis Déodat Désiré Didier Dieudonné Dimitri Diodore Dominique Donat Donatien Edgar Edgard Edmé Edmond Édouard Élie Eloi Émeric Émile Émilien Emmanuel Enzo Éric Ermenegilde Ernest Ethan Étienne Eugène Eustache Évariste Évrard Fabien Fabrice Félicien Félix Ferdinand Fernand Fiacre Firmin Florence Florent | Florentin Florian Francis François Frédéric Gabriel Gaël Gaëtan Gaspard Gaston Gaubert Geoffroy Georges Gérard Géraud Germain Gervais Ghislain Gilbert Gilles Gratien Grégoire Guatier Guillaume Gustave Guy Hector Henri Herbert Hercule Hervé Hilaire Hippolyte Honoré Horace Hubert Hugues Humbert Hyacinthe Ignace Irénée Isidore Jacques Jason Jean Jérémie Jérôme Joachim Jocelyn Joël Jonathan Joseph Josse Josué Jourdain | Jules Julien Juste Justin Laurent Laurentin Lazare Léandre Léo Léon Léonard Léonce Léonide Léopold Lionel Loïc Lothaire Louis Loup Luc Lucas Lucien Lucrèce Ludovic Maël Marc Marcel Marcellin Marin Marius Martin Mathieu Mathis Matthias Maurice Maxence Maxime Maximilien Michaël Michel Modeste Narcisse Nathan Nathanaël Nazaire Nicéphore Nicodème Nicolas Noé Noël Norbert Odilon Olivier Onésime Pascal | Patrice Paul Philippe Pierre Placide Pons Prosper Quentin Rainier Raoul Raphaël Raymond Régis Rémy René Reynaud Richard Robert Roch Rodolphe Rodrigue Roger Roland Romain Rosaire Ruben Salomon Samuel Sébastien Séraphin Serge Sévère Séverin Simon Sylvain Sylvestre Télesphore Théodore Théophile Thibault Thierry Thomas Timothée Toussaint Urbain Valentin Valère Valéry Vespasien Victor Vincent Vivien Xavier Yves Zacharie |
For some real-life inspiration, here are lists of famous 19th century and 20th century French people, courtesy of Wikipedia. Notice that many of the Frenchman have double-barreled, triple-barreled, even quadruple-barreled given names. (Daguerre himself was named Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre.)
Source: The First Photograph of a Human