Meaning and history
From Fredenandus, the Latinized form of a Gothic name formed from friþus “peace” (or perhaps farþa “journey”) and nanþa “boldness, daring,” the name was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Visigoths and entered the royal families of Spain and Portugal. From there it spread to the Habsburg royal family of the Holy Roman Empire and Austria, beginning with the Spanish-born Ferdinand I in the 16th century. A notable bearer was the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521), known in Portuguese as Fernão de Magalhães, who led the first expedition to sail around the earth.
20062006: 21 births, rank #4,370
2007: 24 births, rank #4,127
2008: 25 births, rank #4,044
2009: 20 births, rank #4,748
2010: 23 births, rank #4,241
20112011: 20 births, rank #4,659
2012: 21 births, rank #4,533
2013: 24 births, rank #4,064
2014: 24 births, rank #4,138
2015: 20 births, rank #4,711
20162016: 35 births, rank #3,230
2017: 17 births, rank #5,297
2018: 25 births, rank #4,094
2019: 20 births, rank #4,806
2020: 14 births, rank #5,980
20212021: 16 births, rank #5,562
2022: 29 births, rank #3,774
2023: 29 births, rank #3,802
2024: 28 births, rank #3,896
20252025: 24 births, rank #4,249
Ferdinand rose from #989 to #986 for boys between 1968 and 1971. Its highest annual birth count came in 1918, with 259 births.