Orlanda
Derived from the French surname Rolland, a feminine name of uncertain meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 643 living Americans carry the first name Orlanda. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 67.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Orlanda today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Orlanda births was 1968 (35 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Orlanda. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Orlanda with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
643
~ 1 in 533,055 Americans
Peak year
1968
35 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
1994 SSA rank
#8,515
Tracked since 1915
Census
Orlanda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 816 people with the first name Orlanda, which placed it at #14,446 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#14,446
National first-name rank
People counted
816
816 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
40.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Orlanda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orlanda is Hispanic at 40.6%. The next largest groups are Black (38.6%) and White (16.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Orlanda described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Orlanda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino40.6% · 331
- Black or African American38.6% · 315
- White16.2% · 132
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.3% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 12
- Two or more races0.9% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Orlanda
Orlanda is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 792 total registrations, 538 (67.9%) were male and 254 (32.1%) were female.
Orlanda as a male name
- Ranked #8,515 in 1994
- 6 male births in 1994
- Peak: 1970 (25 births)
Orlanda as a female name
- Ranked #11,901 in 1989
- 6 female births in 1989
- Peak: 1964 (14 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Orlanda on both sides of the split. Of the 824 people counted with this name, 237 were male (28.8%) and 587 were female (71.2%).
Popularity
Orlanda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Orlanda from the 1910s through to the 1990s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 260 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Orlanda by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Orlanda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Orlandas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Alabama, North Carolina, Georgia recorded the most babies named Orlanda, while Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Orlanda
The given name Orlanda originated from the Spanish and Italian languages, emerging in the late medieval period around the 12th century. It is derived from the French name Roland, which itself is a Germanic name composed of the elements "hrod" meaning "fame" and "land" meaning "land" or "territory." This name was made popular through the legend of the heroic knight Roland, a military leader during the reign of Charlemagne in the 8th century.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Orlanda can be found in the epic poem "La Chanson de Roland" (The Song of Roland), a masterpiece of Old French literature dating back to the 11th century. This poem recounts the story of Roland, a brave Frankish knight who fought against the Saracens in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass during Charlemagne's campaign in Spain. The name Orlanda is believed to be a feminine form of Roland, possibly influenced by the Italian language.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Orlanda. One of the earliest recorded examples is Orlanda di Lasso (c. 1532-1594), a renowned Flemish Renaissance composer known for his madrigals and sacred music. Another prominent figure was Orlanda Gomez (c. 1580-c. 1630), a Spanish poet and nun who wrote religious poetry and is considered one of the leading voices of the Spanish Golden Age.
In the 17th century, Orlanda Gigli (1640-1722) was an Italian painter and engraver from Florence, known for her highly detailed and naturalistic still-life paintings. She was one of the few female artists of her time to achieve recognition and success in the male-dominated art world.
Moving forward to the 19th century, Orlanda Ward (1821-1899) was an American Baptist missionary who spent over 40 years serving in Burma (now Myanmar). She played a significant role in the establishment of several schools and churches in the region, contributing to the spread of Christianity and education.
In more recent times, Orlanda Amarilis (1924-2011) was a renowned Puerto Rican poet, essayist, and educator. She is regarded as one of the most influential voices in Puerto Rican literature and is celebrated for her poetic works that explored themes of identity, culture, and social justice.
People
Orlanda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Orlanda as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Orlanda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Orlanda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 643 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Orlanda going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 533,055 US residents.
Is Orlanda a common name?
We classify Orlanda as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 792 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Orlanda most popular?
The single biggest year for Orlanda was 1968, when 35 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Orlanda is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Orlanda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 816 people with the name Orlanda, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,446 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Orlanda in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Orlanda?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Orlanda on both sides of the split. Of the 824 people counted with this name, 237 were male (28.8%) and 587 were female (71.2%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Orlanda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orlanda is Hispanic at 40.6%. The next largest groups are Black (38.6%) and White (16.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Orlanda most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Orlanda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.6% (331 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Orlanda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Orlanda a male name?
Yes, 67.9% of people registered as Orlanda in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Orlanda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Orlanda in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Orlanda can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have the name Orlanda?
See how many people share the name Orlanda on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.