The Freire surname
In the 2010 U.S. Census, 2,477 people carried this name — #12,514 among all U.S. surnames, about 1 in every 119,000 people counted. That is up 31% from 1,889 in 2000.
Where the name comes from
The origin of the Freire surname
Borrowed from Spanish Freire, from Galician Freire.
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary (en.wiktionary.org) — entry «Freire» (English), by Wiktionary contributors · licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · excerpt, lightly adapted.
In Argentina’s national register
At least 4,092 people named Freire live in Argentina.
RENAPER only publishes a name in a province when more than ten people there share it, so the real number is higher. Most of them live in Buenos Aires Province.
Where it concentrates, on the mapWhere they live today
RENAPER (National Registry of Persons, Argentina), surnames of residents by province, December 2021 — CC BY 4.0.
In Switzerland’s population statistics
451 people named Freire live in Switzerland.
They live in 16 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, most of all in Vaud.
Where it concentrates, on the mapWhere they live today
Swiss Federal Statistical Office (FSO), «Surnames of the permanent resident population by canton», 2025, opendata.swiss/en/dataset/nachnamen-der-standigen-wohnbevolkerung-nach-kanton3 · names with fewer than 3 bearers in a canton are not published.
In France’s civil register
France’s register of deaths holds 91 people named Freire.
Most of them — 54 — were born outside France. Those born in France came from 19 départements, most often Pas-de-Calais.
Too few records to say where it concentrates region by region — these are plain counts, not shares.
Where they were born
Fichier des personnes décédées, INSEE — Licence Ouverte 2.0 · deaths recorded in France since 1970, by place of birth.
In the Nordic population registers
22 people named Freire is counted in Sweden.
Sweden’s figure is from 31 December 2022, the last count Statistics Sweden published.
Counted, by country
Own calculations based on data from Statistics Sweden (SCB), surnames with at least two bearers, 31 December 2022 — CC BY 4.0 (names with 20 or more bearers shown).
In print
Freire in American newspapers,
1823–1962.
Chronicling America, Library of Congress — digitised newspapers in the public domain · 1,824 pages in all carry the name.
Who carried it
People named Freire,
with a public archive behind them.
-
Gomes Freire de Andrade 1685–1763 · politician -
Cipriano Ribeiro Freire 1749–1824 · physician -
Agostinho José Freire 1780–1836 · politician -
Ramón Freire 1787–1851 · military personnel -
Manuel Freire 1792–1858 · military personnel
Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons (CC0) · 236 lives in all are documented under this name.
Nearby in the index
Surnames next to Freire.
- Freeman 169,149 · U.S. census
- Fregosi 136 · U.S. census
- Frei 2,419 · U.S. census
- Freiburger 1,057 · U.S. census
- Freidinger 104 · U.S. census
- Frein 454 · U.S. census
- Freis 224 · U.S. census
- Freismuth 162 · U.S. census
- Freiss 150 · U.S. census
- Freitag 4,733 · U.S. census
- Freitas 11,041 · U.S. census
- Freland 120 · U.S. census
When the index is not enough
This page says where Freire is.
A volume says what happened to it.
Every page in the index is free and stays free. The Heritage Volume is the long form: the full paper trail, the arms, the crossing — bound, and yours.