Folke
Meaning and origin
Old Norse Folki, short form of names beginning with the element Folk- "people"; cognate to a medieval English given name surviving in the surnames Fulk, Fulke, Fawkes etc.
Source: Wiktionary, Swedish entry for Folke (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Popularity in Sweden
Among newborns, Folke has been fairly steady over the last few years. Its best year between 1998 and 2022 was 2020. The figures are for this exact spelling; other spellings of the name are counted on their own.
Years with fewer than two babies (fewer than ten before 2004) show as zero in the chart and as – in the table.
Show the figures
| Year | Boys |
|---|---|
| 1998 | – |
| 1999 | – |
| 2000 | 11 |
| 2001 | – |
| 2002 | 17 |
| 2003 | 10 |
| 2004 | 14 |
| 2005 | 18 |
| 2006 | 42 |
| 2007 | 34 |
| 2008 | 57 |
| 2009 | 71 |
| 2010 | 63 |
| 2011 | 81 |
| 2012 | 97 |
| 2013 | 103 |
| 2014 | 121 |
| 2015 | 145 |
| 2016 | 151 |
| 2017 | 158 |
| 2018 | 153 |
| 2019 | 146 |
| 2020 | 172 |
| 2021 | 146 |
| 2022 | 153 |
Everyone registered in Sweden on 31 December with this as the first name they use.
Show the figures
| Year | Men and boys |
|---|---|
| 1999 | 6,846 |
| 2000 | 6,551 |
| 2001 | 6,306 |
| 2002 | 5,985 |
| 2003 | 5,707 |
| 2004 | 5,450 |
| 2005 | 5,197 |
| 2006 | 5,021 |
| 2007 | 4,806 |
| 2008 | 4,631 |
| 2009 | 4,448 |
| 2010 | 4,302 |
| 2011 | 4,167 |
| 2012 | 4,046 |
| 2013 | 3,959 |
| 2014 | 3,881 |
| 2015 | 3,847 |
| 2016 | 3,817 |
| 2017 | 3,817 |
| 2018 | 3,815 |
| 2019 | 3,796 |
| 2020 | 3,809 |
Folke in a sentence
- Hej! Jag heter Folke.Hi! My name is Folke.
- Har du träffat Folke? Han började jobba här i måndags.Have you met Folke? He started working here on Monday.
- Jag ska fika med Folke i eftermiddag.I'm having coffee with Folke this afternoon.
- Folkes mamma är lärare.Folke's mum is a teacher.
Swedish shows possession with a plain -s and no apostrophe: Folkes mamma is Folke's mum.
More names
Questions about Folke
How do you pronounce Folke in Swedish?
Press Listen at the top of the page to hear Folke from a native speaker's recording.
What does the name Folke mean?
Old Norse Folki, short form of names beginning with the element Folk- "people"; cognate to a medieval English given name surviving in the surnames Fulk, Fulke, Fawkes etc.
How popular is Folke in Sweden?
153 babies were named Folke in 2022. In 2020, 3,809 people in Sweden had Folke as the first name they go by. Among newborns the name has been fairly steady lately and peaked in 2020 in the years SCB covers (1998–2022).
Popularity figures: Statistics Sweden (SCB), name statistics (BE0001) from the Statistical Database, released as open data under CC0. Each spelling is counted as its own name, as SCB does. SCB's open name statistics end with babies named in 2022 and the population on 31 December 2020; SCB stopped producing name statistics in 2024 and now points to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket) for newer figures.
Origins, IPA and recordings: Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0), via kaikki.org; recordings from Lingua Libre on Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA). Lingolib is not affiliated with SCB or Wiktionary. Sources last checked 7 October 2026.