Frederick
Two Germanic roots sit inside it: *frithu*, peace, and *rīc*, ruler, giving a peaceful ruler. The English spelling stands out on a Polish register, and most Poles have never met a boy who carries it.
Frederick Pronunciation
What Frederick means
Where Frederick comes from and what it has meant to the people who carry it.
Frederick grows from two Germanic roots. The first is frithu, meaning peace; the second is rīc, meaning ruler or power. Set side by side they yield the sense recorded in the short meaning: a peaceful ruler. The name spread through Germanic-speaking Europe and took firm hold among English speakers, so it now reads as an English name with a continental past.
That meaning has been tested by the people who carried it. Frederick Douglass, born into slavery in Maryland around 1818, kept the name Frederick through his escape and became one of the clearest voices for abolition in the United States. His life argued that a ruler of peace might be a former captive with a pen.
On a Polish class register the spelling Frederick stands out among the Polish forms, a mark of a family reaching across languages. The meaning stays fixed. Whoever answers to it answers, in the old Germanic sense, as władca pokoju, a peaceful ruler.
How many people are named Frederick
1 in 104128 men in Poland is named Frederick. 205 people carry it in the 2025 register: rank #2198 among male names.
Frederick's popularity over time
3 boys were given the name in 2025, ranking #1242 among newborns. It has been climbing since 2012.
Where Frederick is most popular
Frederick is most popular in Silesian, 217% above the national average (4 boys born 2019–2025), followed by Masovian (+205%) and Pomeranian (+144%).
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Silesian4 boys born+217%
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Masovian6 boys born+205%
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Pomeranian2 boys born+144%
Frederick as a middle name
Frederick is a first name for 205 men in Poland and a middle name for another 172, a 54/46 split, almost evenly. In the men's middle-name ranking it sits 523rd, between Harald (173) and Maurice (172).
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#521 Engelbert173
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#522 Harald173
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#523 Frederick172
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#524 Maurice172
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#525 Dominique171