Rodel
A Filipino masculine name derived from Rodolfo, meaning "famous wolf".
Name Census estimates that about 103 living Americans carry the first name Rodel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rodel today is around 37 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rodel births was 1982 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rodel. 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
103
~ 1 in 3,327,712 Americans
Peak year
1982
10 babies that year
Average age
37
years old
2023 SSA rank
#11,954
Tracked since 1970
Census
Rodel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,172 people with the first name Rodel, which placed it at #11,096 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
#11,096
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,172 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
88.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rodel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rodel is Asian/Pacific Islander at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.9%) and Black (3.0%). 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 Rodel 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 Rodel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander88.4% · 1,036
- Hispanic or Latino5.9% · 69
- Black or African American3.0% · 35
- White1.5% · 18
- Two or more races0.9% · 10
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 4
Popularity
Rodel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rodel from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 34 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rodel 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 Rodel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rodels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Rodel
The name Rodel is believed to have originated from the Germanic languages, likely from a combination of the words "rod" meaning "famous" and "ell" meaning "noble." It first emerged during the Middle Ages, around the 6th to 8th centuries AD, in regions where Germanic tribes had settled, such as parts of modern-day Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rodel can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae, a collection of historical documents from the Kingdom of Saxony, dated around the 9th century AD. The name appears in reference to a nobleman named Rodel von Meissen, who held lands in the region of Meissen, located in present-day eastern Germany.
In the 11th century, a monk named Rodel von Reichenau was noted for his scholarly work at the Reichenau Abbey, an important center of learning and manuscript production during the medieval period. His contributions included illuminated manuscripts and theological writings, which have been preserved in various libraries and archives.
During the 12th century, a knight named Rodel von Staufen gained recognition for his service in the Imperial armies of the Holy Roman Empire. He participated in several campaigns and battles during the reign of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, and his name is recorded in contemporary chronicles and military records from that era.
In the 15th century, a renowned artist and woodcarver from Nuremberg, Germany, named Rodel Krafft, gained widespread acclaim for his intricate and detailed works. His most famous creation is the Krafft Altar, a magnificent carved altarpiece that adorns the Church of St. Lawrence in Nuremberg, completed around 1467.
Another notable figure bearing the name Rodel was Rodel von Biberach, a German architect and master builder who lived in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. He played a significant role in the construction of several important Gothic churches and buildings in southern Germany, including the Ulm Minster, which has the tallest church spire in the world.
People
Rodel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rodel 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
Rodel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rodel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 103 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rodel 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 3,327,712 US residents.
Is Rodel a common name?
We classify Rodel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 65% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 108 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rodel most popular?
The single biggest year for Rodel was 1982, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rodel 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 Rodel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,172 people with the name Rodel, or 0.39 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,096 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 Rodel 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 Rodel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rodel leans strongly male. 1,158 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 13 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Rodel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rodel is Asian/Pacific Islander at 88.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.9%) and Black (3.0%). 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 Rodel most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Rodel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 88.4% (1,036 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 Rodel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rodel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rodel 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 Rodel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rodel 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 Rodel 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 Rodel?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.