Rocco
Of German origin meaning "rest".
Name Census estimates that about 22,136 living Americans carry the first name Rocco. It sits at #500 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rocco today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rocco births was 2009 (785 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rocco. 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 Rocco with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
22K
~ 1 in 15,484 Americans
Peak year
2009
785 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#500
Tracked since 1891
Census
Rocco in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,061 people with the first name Rocco, which placed it at #1,598 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
#1,598
National first-name rank
People counted
20K
20,061 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rocco
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rocco is White at 83.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.2%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Rocco 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 Rocco at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.2% · 16,697
- Hispanic or Latino11.2% · 2,244
- Two or more races3.5% · 700
- Black or African American0.9% · 190
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 186
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 44
Gender
Gender distribution for Rocco
Out of the 31,003 babies given the name Rocco since 1880, 100.0% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Rocco as a male name
- Ranked #500 in 2024
- 609 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (785 births)
Rocco as a female name
- Ranked #11,720 in 1984
- 5 female births in 1984
- Peak: 1984 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rocco appears almost entirely male. Of the 20,056 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Rocco: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rocco from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 6,657 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rocco remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rocco 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 Rocco during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Roccos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 41 states and territories. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Rocco, while Alabama, Kentucky, Idaho recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 678 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rocco
The given name Rocco originates from the Italian language and has its roots in the Germanic name Hrodechi, which means "famous army". The name was derived from the Germanic elements "hrod" meaning "fame" and "egi" meaning "army".
Rocco is a diminutive form of the Italian name Rocco, which is a variant of the Latin name Roccus. This name gained popularity in the Middle Ages and was particularly common in Italy and other parts of Europe.
One of the earliest historical references to the name Rocco can be found in the story of Saint Roch (also known as Rocco or Rocco di Montpellier), a Catholic saint who lived in the 14th century. According to legend, he was born in Montpellier, France, in 1295 and dedicated his life to caring for victims of the Black Death plague.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Rocco. One of the earliest recorded examples is Rocco dei Caccini (c. 1460–c. 1506), an Italian sculptor and architect from Florence.
Another famous Rocco was Rocco Graziani (1892-1955), an Italian military officer and fascist politician who served as the Governor-General of Italian East Africa during World War II.
In the realm of art, Rocco Marconi (1490-1529) was an Italian painter and architect from Treviso who worked in the Renaissance style.
The name Rocco also has a connection to the world of literature, with Rocco Scotellaro (1923-1953), an Italian poet and novelist known for his works that explored the lives of rural farmers and the poor.
Finally, Rocco Baldelli (born 1981) is a former Major League Baseball player and current manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, known for his impressive career as an outfielder and his leadership on the field.
While these are just a few examples, the name Rocco has a rich history and has been borne by individuals from various walks of life, contributing to the cultural and historical tapestry of different societies.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Rocco
People
Rocco + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rocco 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
Rocco: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rocco?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 22,136 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rocco 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 15,484 US residents.
Is Rocco a common name?
We classify Rocco as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 31,003 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rocco most popular?
The single biggest year for Rocco was 2009, when 785 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rocco 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 Rocco in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,061 people with the name Rocco, or 6.64 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,598 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 Rocco 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 Rocco?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rocco appears almost entirely male. Of the 20,056 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 Rocco?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rocco is White at 83.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (11.2%) and Two or More Races (3.5%). 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 Rocco most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rocco in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.2% (16,697 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 Rocco in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rocco a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rocco 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 Rocco still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rocco 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 Rocco 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 Rocco?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.