The Reason Hot Dogs Are Sometimes Called Franks

Next time you grab a package of hot dogs from the grocery store, rather than contemplating why the number of dogs and buns don't match, take a good look at the label. Whether the brand is Ballpark, Hebrew National, Nathan's Famous, or Bar-S, rather than being labeled as hot dogs, they're called franks (Oscar Mayer, famously, calls its dogs "wieners"). It's pretty well known that hot dogs go by many names, like wieners, red hots, and foot-longs, just to name a few. But why franks?

"Frank" is short for frankfurter, and both that moniker and the term "wiener" are derived from place names (Frankfurt, Germany and Vienna, Austria, respectively) that reflect the long and intriguing journey of the hot dog from Europe to America. Like many Americans themselves, the hot dog or frank originated overseas before arriving in the U.S. in the 19th century. Over the course of several decades, the frankfurter evolved into the game-day and picnic barbecue treat we know today.

Germany is famous for hundreds of sausage styles dating back centuries, including bratwurst, weisswurst, and the frankfurter würstchen. Each has different fillings, comes in a different size, and may be either uncooked or partially prepared and preserved through smoking, salting, parboiling, or a combination of techniques. For instance, the difference between bratwursts and hot dogs is in the meats, seasonings, and processing involved. And while these names are interchangeable in America, there are actual differences between hot dogs and franks.

The frankfurter würstchen is a slender sausage, featuring finely chopped pork in a natural sheep casing, that is lightly smoked and parboiled. Today's hot dog has all sorts of ingredients, often inside an artificial casing. There are several origin stories for the frankfurter, but in 1987, the city of Frankfurt celebrated the 500th birthday of the hot dog (or frankfurter). Regardless of when the first frankfurter came off the stove, it received legal geographic protection in Germany in 1860.

When Germans and Central Europeans immigrated to America in the 19th century, they brought the frankfurter with them. The similar dachshund (little dog) sausage was commonly served in a bun by the 1860s. German butcher Charles Feltman began selling dachshund sausages on Coney Island in 1871, and Feltman's employee, Nathan Handwerker, opened Nathan's in 1916, forever associating Coney Island with the hot dog (though Handwerker called them red hots) and later Nathan's Famous Franks.

How the dachshund (which was already called a hot dog on college campuses by the early 1890s) and the frankfurter or frank intersected is lost to history. But hot dogs were commonly called franks at least by the 1940s, and probably much earlier. By the late 1940s, several producers were pushing Friday Franks: tuna fish hot dogs for those who avoided meat on Fridays. Ball Park changed from hot dogs to franks in 1959, while Hebrew National sold frankfurters at least by 1960.