Boy name origins & meanings
- Old French : Free; an androgynous name, though Frances is generally used for girls and Francis for boys
Boy name variations
Family name origins & meanings
- Spanish and Italian : from a personal name, in origin an ethnic name for a Frank, a member of the Germanic people who inhabited the lands around the river Rhine in Roman times. See also Frank. The personal name was popularized by the cult of San Franco di Assergi.
- Italian and Spanish : nickname or status name from franco ‘free’ (usually denoting a freed slave).
- Jewish (Sephardic) : adoption of the Spanish surname.
