Remus
One of the twin brothers raised by a wolf in Roman mythology.
Name Census estimates that about 585 living Americans carry the first name Remus. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Remus today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Remus births was 2019 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Remus. 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 Remus with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
585
~ 1 in 585,905 Americans
Peak year
2019
28 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,648
Tracked since 1889
Census
Remus in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 641 people with the first name Remus, which placed it at #17,282 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
#17,282
National first-name rank
People counted
641
641 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
46.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Remus
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Remus is White at 46.2%. The next largest groups are Black (33.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.6%). 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 Remus 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 Remus at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White46.2% · 296
- Black or African American33.9% · 217
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.6% · 49
- Hispanic or Latino6.4% · 41
- Two or more races3.9% · 25
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.0% · 13
Popularity
Remus: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Remus from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 147 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Remus remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Remus 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 Remus during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Remus' live
Origin
Meaning and history of Remus
The given name Remus has its origins in ancient Roman mythology and culture, dating back to the 8th century BC. It is derived from the Latin word "remus," meaning "oar" or "paddle," reflecting the nautical history of the Roman civilization near the Tiber River.
Remus is most famously associated with the legendary founding of Rome. According to Roman mythology, Remus and his twin brother Romulus were the sons of the war god Mars and the priestess Rhea Silvia. They were abandoned as infants and raised by a she-wolf before eventually founding the city of Rome. Tragically, Remus was killed by Romulus in a dispute over the city's location and naming rights.
The story of Romulus and Remus is prominently featured in Virgil's epic poem, the Aeneid, written between 29 and 19 BC. This work played a significant role in cementing the twins' place in Roman folklore and perpetuating the use of their names.
One of the earliest recorded individuals named Remus was a Roman general who lived in the 4th century BC. Remus Fanius Caepio commanded Roman forces during the Samnite Wars and is mentioned in historical accounts by writers such as Livy.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Remus. These include Remus of Auxerre (c. 437-533), a French theologian and scholar who authored commentaries on the Bible, and Remus of Lunel (c. 1150-1225), a French-Jewish scholar and commentator on the Talmud.
In more recent times, Remus Lupin, a character from the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling, has helped to popularize the name. Lupin, born in 1960, was a werewolf and Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Other famous individuals named Remus include Remus Reid (1776-1844), an American politician and judge from Virginia, and Remus Bernardin (1928-1996), an American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Archbishop of Chicago.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Remus
People
Remus + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Remus 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
Remus: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Remus?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 585 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Remus 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 585,905 US residents.
Is Remus a common name?
We classify Remus as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 940 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Remus most popular?
The single biggest year for Remus was 2019, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Remus is about 37 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Remus in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 641 people with the name Remus, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,282 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 Remus 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 Remus?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Remus leans strongly male. 634 people counted with this name were male (98.8%), compared with 8 female bearers (1.2%). 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 Remus?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Remus is White at 46.2%. The next largest groups are Black (33.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (7.6%). 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 Remus most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Remus in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.2% (296 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 Remus in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Remus a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Remus 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 Remus still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Remus 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 Remus 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 share the name Remus?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.