Forbin

surname · French · Latin script

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

Forbin is a surname, most frequently recorded in France. It appears chiefly in French and English, written in the Latin script.

rarermore common
  • FRFrance1 in 221K◐
  • USUnited States1 in 2.2M
  • JMJamaica1 in 218K

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

Meaning & origin

No verified etymology recorded for this name yet — the entries below are drawn from usage statistics and the name graph.

Where in the world●

Where Forbin is recorded, by country
CountryShare of this name
FR France1,26348%
US United States1,20546%
MA Morocco261%
JM Jamaica211%
CA Canada161%

≈2,531 recorded bearers across the countries shown (a sample of the full distribution).

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • French1.3K49%
  • English1.2K47%
  • Spanish311%
  • Arabic261%
  • German151%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
French1,27849%
English1,24547%
Spanish311%
Arabic261%
German151%

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Over time●

0204060801900192019401960198064 · 1961

Show as table
Forbin in INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000), France, 1891–1991
Yearrecords
189113
190129
191123
192142
193150
194144
195152
196164
197155
198148
199163

FR INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) — 11 years between 1891–1991. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

1400160018002000Palamede de Forbin, b. 1433Paul-Albert de Forbin Bonneval, b. 1580Louis de Forbin-Gardanne, b. 1610Louis de Forbin d'Oppède, b. 1622Claude de Forbin Gardane, b. 1656Jacques II de Forbin-Janson, b. 1673Auguste Forbin, b. 1777Charles, Joseph, Marie, Auguste de Forbin Janson, b. 1785Alfred Forbin, b. 1872
  • Palamede de Forbinb. 1433FRFrench and Provencal politician of the 15th century, founder of the noble house of Forbin, Grand Seneschal, Governor and Lieutenant-General of Provence, and Governor of Dauphiné
  • Paul-Albert de Forbin Bonnevalb. 1580FR17th century French naval officer, member of the noble house of Forbin, branch of La Barben, stem of the lords of Bonneval ; Bailiff then Grand Prior of Saint-Gilles of the Order of Malte, Lieutenant-General of the galleys of King Louis XIII
  • Louis de Forbin-Gardanneb. 161017th century French aristocrat, officer in the French Royal Navy, ship's captain, knight of the Order of Malta, member of the noble house of Forbin, branch of the Forbin Gardane
  • Louis de Forbin d'Oppèdeb. 1622FR17th century French prelate, member of the Forbin Maynier noble family, Bishop of Toulon
  • Claude de Forbin Gardaneb. 1656FRSenior French naval officer, member of the noble house of Forbin, Forbin Gardane branch. While in the service of the King of Siam he was Grand Admiral and General of the King's armies. He was also the Governor of Bangkok.
  • Jacques II de Forbin-Jansonb. 1673FRRoman Catholic prelate of the first half of the 18th century, member of the noble house of Forbin, branch of the Forbin Janson
  • Auguste Forbinb. 1777FRFrench painter, director of the Louvre Museum (1777-1841)
  • Charles, Joseph, Marie, Auguste de Forbin Jansonb. 1785FRFrench aristocrat and bishop
  • Alfred Forbinb. 1872FRFrench stamp dealer and collector (1872–1956)
  • Françoise de ForbinFRFrench woman of letters, descendant of the Forbin des Issarts branch of the noble house of Forbin, member of the Académie de Vaucluse and director of the library of Avignon

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Attested in 6 sources across 4 countries.

Official registers attesting Forbin
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)196164—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)199163—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)197155—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)195152—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)193150—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)198148—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)194144—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)192142—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)190129—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)191123—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)189113—
CH SwitzerlandBFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames)20244#118,617

Reference works 2

  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-06 data build · 14 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Forbin?
Our records include 2,531 bearers of Forbin across 5 countries — a sample of the full distribution.
In which country does Forbin have the most bearers?
Forbin is most frequently recorded in France.
Query this name via API
curl https://nelma-api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/forbin

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Forbin”. Data snapshot 2026-08-31.

See how Forbin parses inside a full name →