Roald
A Scandinavian masculine name of uncertain origin, potentially meaning "illustrious ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 36 living Americans carry the first name Roald. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Roald today is around 80 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Roald births was 1928 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Roald. 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 Roald with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Roald is about 80 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Roalds were born before 1956.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Roald. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
36
~ 1 in 9,520,954 Americans
Peak year
1928
18 babies that year
Average age
80
years old
1960 SSA rank
#3,284
Tracked since 1912
Census
Roald in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 331 people with the first name Roald, which placed it at #27,567 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
#27,567
National first-name rank
People counted
331
331 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Roald
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roald is White at 78.2%. The next largest groups are Black (6.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.6%). 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 Roald 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 Roald at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.2% · 259
- Black or African American6.6% · 22
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.6% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino6.0% · 20
- Two or more races2.4% · 8
Popularity
Roald: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Roald from the 1910s through to the 1960s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 76 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Roald 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 Roald during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Roalds live
Origin
Meaning and history of Roald
The name Roald is of Scandinavian origin, derived from the Old Norse name Rögnvaldr. It is composed of the elements "rögn" meaning "counsel" or "decision" and "valdr" meaning "ruler" or "wielder". The name essentially means "famous ruler" or "renowned counselor".
This name has its roots in the Viking Age, when Scandinavian influence spread across Europe through conquest and exploration. The Vikings were known for their seafaring prowess and their impact on various cultures they encountered. The name Roald would have been borne by Norsemen of high status or distinction.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Roald appears in the Icelandic Sagas, which recount the stories and histories of the Norse people. The Saga of Burnt Njal, written around the 13th century, mentions a character named Rögnvaldr Brúsason, who was a prominent chieftain in the Faroe Islands.
In the Middle Ages, the name Roald was particularly popular in Scandinavia and parts of Britain. Roald de Richmunde, an Anglo-Norman nobleman born around 1170, is one of the earliest recorded individuals with this name in England. He held lands in Yorkshire and served as a knight under King John.
Another notable figure was Roald Amundsen, the famous Norwegian explorer who led the first expedition to reach the South Pole in 1911. He was also the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. Amundsen lived from 1872 to 1928 and his achievements cemented his place in the annals of polar exploration.
In literature, the name Roald gained widespread recognition through the works of Roald Dahl, the beloved British author of children's books. Born in 1916 and passing away in 1990, Dahl penned classics such as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Matilda," and "The BFG," entertaining generations of young readers with his whimsical storytelling.
Another prominent individual with this name was Roald Hoffman, an American theoretical chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1981 for his work on the course of chemical reactions. He was born in 1937 and has made significant contributions to the field of chemistry throughout his career.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Roald
People
Roald + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Roald 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
Roald: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Roald?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 36 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Roald 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 9,520,954 US residents.
Is Roald a common name?
We classify Roald as "Very Rare". It ranks above 49.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 189 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Roald most popular?
The single biggest year for Roald was 1928, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Roald is about 80 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Roald in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 331 people with the name Roald, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,567 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 Roald 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 Roald?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Roald appears almost entirely male. Of the 330 people counted with this name, 99.4% 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 Roald?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roald is White at 78.2%. The next largest groups are Black (6.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.6%). 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 Roald most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Roald in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.2% (259 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 Roald in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Roald a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Roald 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 Roald still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Roald 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 Roald 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 Roald as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.