Rawle
A masculine name of English origin, possibly derived from the place name Rawle in Somerset.
Name Census estimates that about 11 living Americans carry the first name Rawle. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rawle today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rawle births was 1992 (6 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rawle. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Rawle. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
11
~ 1 in 31,159,485 Americans
Peak year
1992
6 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2000 SSA rank
#11,739
Tracked since 1992
Census
Rawle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 548 people with the first name Rawle, which placed it at #19,346 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
#19,346
National first-name rank
People counted
548
548 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
85.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rawle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rawle is Black at 85.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (4.7%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Rawle 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 Rawle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American85.4% · 468
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.7% · 26
- Two or more races4.0% · 22
- White3.8% · 21
- Hispanic or Latino2.0% · 11
Popularity
Rawle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rawle from the 1990s through to the 2000s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 6 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rawle 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 Rawle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rawles live
Origin
Meaning and history of Rawle
The name Rawle originates from the Old French word "raoul," which itself is derived from the Germanic name "Radulf." The name Radulf is composed of the elements "rad," meaning counsel or advice, and "wulf," meaning wolf. The name was popular among the Normans and was brought to England after the Norman Conquest in 1066.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Rawle was Raoul de Cambrai, a minor French nobleman who lived in the 12th century. He was the subject of an Old French chanson de geste (epic poem) written around 1200, which recounted his exploits and adventures.
In medieval England, the name was sometimes spelled as "Rawlyn" or "Raulyn." One notable bearer of the name was Rawlins de Brewes, a 13th-century English nobleman and military commander who fought in the Barons' War against King Henry III.
Another historical figure with the name Rawle was Ralph de Ingham, who was born around 1285. He served as Lord Chancellor of England and Lord Treasurer under King Edward III in the 14th century.
In the 16th century, the name Rawle was borne by Ralph Sadler, an English statesman and diplomat who served under King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. He was born in 1507 and died in 1587.
A more recent example is Rawle Lowndes, an 18th-century English lawyer and author who lived from 1720 to 1784. He wrote several legal treatises and was a prominent figure in the legal profession of his time.
These are just a few examples of historical figures who bore the name Rawle. The name has a long and fascinating history, spanning various cultures and time periods, and has been carried by individuals from different walks of life, including noblemen, military commanders, statesmen, and legal scholars.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Rawle
People
Rawle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rawle as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Rawle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rawle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 11 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rawle 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 31,159,485 US residents.
Is Rawle a common name?
We classify Rawle as "Very Rare". It ranks above 30.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rawle most popular?
The single biggest year for Rawle was 1992, when 6 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rawle is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rawle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 548 people with the name Rawle, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,346 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 Rawle 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 Rawle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rawle appears almost entirely male. Of the 546 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Rawle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rawle is Black at 85.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (4.7%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Rawle most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rawle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.4% (468 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 Rawle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rawle a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rawle 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 Rawle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rawle 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 Rawle 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 common is the name Rawle?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Rawle at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.