- Means a land-holder — someone who owned property
- Commonly used as both a first name and a last name
- Most famous as the surame of America’s founding father, Benjamin Franklin
- When used as a last name, known for singer Aretha Franklin, and actress Bonnie Franklin
- Famous as the first name of American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- Abbreviated to Frank, Frankie
More history of the name Franklin
The text below is excerpted with permission from the book The Encyclopedia of American Last Names: Family Genealogy and Meanings for 1000 Surnames of Early European Settlers to the United States.
Franklin and Frankland are both forms of what was originally the same name.
It might seem that Franklin was a corruption of Frankland, but just the opposite is the case, so you cannot regard the name as a compound of Frank and land.
The old form of the name was Franckleyn or Frankelein, with or without the Le before it. It was Latinized in old records as Frankelanus.
It was derived from the old English word. Franklin used to designate a large freeholder [property owner] — often the son of a villain, as feudal serfs were called — who had become rich.
