Rockell
Meaning "rock" and derived from the Old English word for "rock".
Name Census estimates that about 202 living Americans carry the first name Rockell. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Rockell today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rockell births was 1992 (13 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rockell. 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.
People living today
202
~ 1 in 1,696,804 Americans
Peak year
1992
13 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2015 SSA rank
#18,577
Tracked since 1970
Census
Rockell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 285 people with the first name Rockell, which placed it at #30,528 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
#30,528
National first-name rank
People counted
285
285 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
63.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rockell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rockell is Black at 63.5%. The next largest groups are White (23.2%) and Hispanic (8.8%). 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 Rockell 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 Rockell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American63.5% · 181
- White23.2% · 66
- Hispanic or Latino8.8% · 25
- Two or more races3.5% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 3
Popularity
Rockell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rockell from the 1970s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 58 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Rockell remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rockell 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 Rockell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rockells live
Origin
Meaning and history of Rockell
The name Rockell is a modern invention, likely created in the 20th century as a combination of the word "rock" and a common suffix like "-ell". It does not have a clear linguistic or cultural origin, and there are no known historical references or ancient texts mentioning this name.
Despite its recent origin, there are a few notable individuals who have borne the name Rockell. One of the earliest recorded examples is Rockell Mertray, an American actress and dancer born in 1926. She appeared in several Broadway musicals and films in the 1940s and 1950s.
Another person named Rockell was Rockell Lamar Nesbitt, an American football player born in 1960. He played as a defensive back in the National Football League for teams like the San Francisco 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons in the 1980s and early 1990s.
In the music industry, there is Rockell, an American R&B singer and songwriter born in 1969. She is best known for her hit single "In a Dream" from her debut album, "Trippin'" released in 1997.
Rockell Gorrell, born in 1979, is an American former professional basketball player who played in the WNBA for teams like the Houston Comets and the Sacramento Monarchs in the early 2000s.
Lastly, Rockell Hackworth is an American model and actress born in 1986. She has appeared in various television shows and films, including a role in the critically acclaimed series "Watchmen" in 2019.
While the name Rockell is relatively modern and lacks a deep historical background, it has been adopted by a few notable individuals across different fields, demonstrating its growing popularity in recent decades.
People
Rockell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rockell 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
Rockell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rockell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 202 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rockell 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 1,696,804 US residents.
Is Rockell a common name?
We classify Rockell as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 211 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rockell most popular?
The single biggest year for Rockell was 1992, when 13 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rockell is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rockell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 285 people with the name Rockell, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #30,528 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 Rockell 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 Rockell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rockell leans strongly female. 253 people counted with this name were female (86.9%), compared with 38 male bearers (13.1%). 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 Rockell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rockell is Black at 63.5%. The next largest groups are White (23.2%) and Hispanic (8.8%). 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 Rockell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rockell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.5% (181 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 Rockell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rockell a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rockell in the SSA data are female. 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 Rockell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rockell 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 Rockell 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 Americans are named Rockell?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.