"Variations: FREDDY, FRITZ, FREDERICK, FREDERIC.

"When that somewhat pretentious but voguish couple, Frasier and Lilith Crane of Cheers, tagged their telebaby Frederick, a lot of people sat up and took notice, and a name that had hardly been used for forty years suddenly started to sound kind of spiffy again. Before that it had taken on a rather forbidding, foreign, uptight, military air, reminiscent of Frederick the Great, the enlightened King of Prussia who laid the foundations of the powerful Prussian empire. For African-Americans, it can be seen as a hero name, honoring Frederick Douglass, who rose from slavery to power as a political activist. But most Fredericks inevitably wound up as FREDs, a far more genial, neighborly moniker, as in Flintstone, MacMurray, Mr. Rogers, and even Astaire. Fred could, like Jack and Henry, be revving up for a comeback, but the nickname FREDDY will have to wait till everyone stops having Freddy-Krueger/Nightmare-on-Elm-Street nightmares. The German diminutive, FRITZ, is also occasionally used, usually in families of German or Swedish origin.

"This name is in the following categories:

Comfy Names