Wild specimens are found in eastern North America where the parent species overlap.

The species is named for Oliver M. Freeman of the U.S. National Arboretum who hybridized A. rubrum with A. saccharinum in 1933.

The cultivars are typically deliberately hybridized and selected in nurseries, not drawn from the wild specimens.

[2] Even high-powered morphometric analyses of leaf shape cannot easily distinguish Acer × freemanii individuals from the parent species.

[4] All that can be said is that Acer × freemanii is generally intermediate between the parents.