Françoise

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Girl · Latin, through French

Françoise

Say it: frahn-SWAHZ

Try it with your surname

Meaning

Feminine of François, from Latin Franciscus 'Frankish, French'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

A leading French girls' name from the Renaissance until the 1950s.

Its wave through time

Rare in the records

In the United States

0510152018801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1967per million babies of that sex
  • 608 babies given this name since 1917
  • At its height in 1967, about 1 in 56,900 girls
  • Fewer than 5 babies a year in 2020

Through the ages

  1. The Renaissance1400 to 1600
  2. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  3. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

FrenchQuébécois

The family of the name

ItalianFrancesca
SpanishFrancisca
EnglishFrances

Famous bearers

  • Françoise d'Aubigné, Madame de Maintenon
  • Françoise Sagan, novelist

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • Royal and noble genealogies
  • National birth statistics of European countries source
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.