Roderic
Old Germanic origin meaning "famous ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 1,705 living Americans carry the first name Roderic. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Roderic today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Roderic births was 1965 (68 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Roderic. 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
1.7K
~ 1 in 201,029 Americans
Peak year
1965
68 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,661
Tracked since 1914
Census
Roderic in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,554 people with the first name Roderic, which placed it at #9,103 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
#9,103
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,554 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
45.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Roderic
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roderic is White at 45.5%. The next largest groups are Black (43.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.8%). 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 Roderic 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 Roderic at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White45.5% · 707
- Black or African American43.1% · 669
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.8% · 75
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 59
- Two or more races2.7% · 42
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 2
Popularity
Roderic: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Roderic from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 528 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Roderic 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 Roderic during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Roderics live
The SSA's state-level files cover 9 states and territories. California, Texas, Michigan recorded the most babies named Roderic, while North Carolina, Louisiana, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 32 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Roderic
The name Roderic has its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically derived from the Old High German name Roderic, which is a compound of the elements "hrod" meaning "fame" and "ric" meaning "power" or "ruler." This name dates back to the early medieval period, around the 5th to 7th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Roderic can be found in the historical records of the Visigothic Kingdom in the Iberian Peninsula, where a king named Roderic (also spelled Rodrigo) ruled from 710 to 711 CE. His reign witnessed the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, marking the end of the Visigothic Kingdom.
In the 9th century, the name Roderic appeared in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, an important historical record of events in Anglo-Saxon England. The Chronicle mentions a Roderic who was a Mercian ruler in the year 841 CE.
During the Middle Ages, the name Roderic was also found in various religious and literary works. For instance, a monk named Roderic the Lame, who lived in the 12th century, wrote a chronicle titled "Historia Compostelana" about the history of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
One of the most famous historical figures bearing the name Roderic was Roderic Borgia, also known as Pope Alexander VI (1431-1503). He was a controversial figure in the history of the Catholic Church, known for his nepotism and alleged corruption.
Another notable figure was Roderic O'Conor (1116-1198), the last High King of Ireland from the O'Conor dynasty. He played a significant role in the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 12th century.
In the 16th century, Roderic Stoughton (1497-1559) was an English Catholic priest and chaplain to Queen Mary I of England. He was also a prominent figure in the English Reformation.
The name Roderic has also been found in various literary works, such as the character Roderic Random in the 18th-century novel "The Adventures of Roderick Random" by Tobias Smollett.
People
Roderic + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Roderic 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
Roderic: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Roderic?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,705 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Roderic 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 201,029 US residents.
Is Roderic a common name?
We classify Roderic as "Rare". It ranks above 93% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,315 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Roderic most popular?
The single biggest year for Roderic was 1965, when 68 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Roderic is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Roderic in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,554 people with the name Roderic, or 0.51 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,103 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 Roderic 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 Roderic?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Roderic appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,561 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Roderic?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roderic is White at 45.5%. The next largest groups are Black (43.1%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.8%). 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 Roderic most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Roderic in the 2020 Census, accounting for 45.5% (707 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 Roderic in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Roderic a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Roderic 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 Roderic still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Roderic 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 Roderic 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 are named Roderic?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.