Sales of the Five-seveN were originally restricted by FN to military and law enforcement customers, but since 2004, the pistol has also been offered to civilian shooters for personal protection, target shooting, and similar uses. Developed as a companion pistol to the P90, the Five-seveN shares many of its design features: it is a lightweight polymer-based weapon with a relatively large magazine capacity, ambidextrous controls, low recoil, and the ability to penetrate body armor when using certain cartridge types. The P90 was introduced in 1990, and the Five-seveN was introduced in 1998 as a pistol using the same 5.7×28mm ammunition. The Five-seveN pistol was developed in conjunction with the FN P90 personal defense weapon and the FN 5.7×28mm cartridge.

The pistol is named for its 5.7×28mm (.224 in) bullet diameter, and the trademark capitalization style is intended to emphasize the manufacturer's initials- FN.

The FN Five-seveN is a semi-automatic pistol designed and manufactured by FN Herstal in Belgium. 'Three-dot' type: fixed or adjustable 177.8 mm (7 in) sight radius.The gun is now on display in the Kazerne Dossin museum in Mechelen.Five-seveN USG with twenty round magazine fitting 5.7×28mm cartridges The Model 1905 was used by the Belgian Resistance in 1943 in the Attack on the twentieth convoy, in which more than 100 Jews were saved from a Holocaust train transporting them to Auschwitz concentration camp. Although Browning's handgun patents were sold to both FN and Colt, this was the only case in which both companies put the same design into production without any significant modification. It is virtually identical to the Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket, which was based on the same John Browning prototype, and was the inspiration for FN's later Baby Browning design. The FN Model 1905 (from its patent date) or FN Model 1906 (in European countries due to its date of manufacture) was a pistol manufactured by Fabrique Nationale de Herstal from 1906 to 1959.

Fn 1905 penetration