French Americans are U.S. citizens or nationals of French descent and heritage. The majority of Franco-American families did not arrive directly from France, but rather settled French territories in the New World (primarily in the 17th and 18th centuries) before moving or being forced to move to the United States later on (see Quebec diaspora and Great Upheaval). Also, the largest French territory in North America was sold to the U.S., absorbing their French citizens (see Louisiana Purchase). About 26 million U.S. residents are of French descent, and about 1.5 million of them speak the French language at home. Being isolated, mixed with different cultures, or ignored, the French-Americans developed particular cultures that reflect varying degrees of adaptation of their environments. This gave birth to streams of French-Americans like the Acadians, the Cajuns (an Anglicization of the autonym Cadien, from the French word for Acadian, Acadien), Louisiana Créoles and many others. In the 2020 United States census, French Americans (25.8 million or 7.4% of the population) were the 4th most common ancestral group, followed by German Americans (45 million), Irish Americans (38.5 million) and Mexican Americans (37.4 million) but ahead of English Americans (25.5 million), based on the self-reporting ancestry data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The following is a list of notable French Americans by occupation, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.
Lists of Americans |
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By US state |
By ethnicity |
To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are French American or must have references showing they are French American and are notable.