Roderick
Famous leader or family ruler of Germanic origin.
Name Census estimates that about 38,471 living Americans carry the first name Roderick. It is a predominantly male name (99.4% of registrations). The average person named Roderick today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Roderick births was 1971 (1,067 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Roderick. 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 Roderick with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Roderick is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 263 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
38K
~ 1 in 8,909 Americans
Peak year
1971
1,067 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,909
Tracked since 1880
Census
Roderick in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 32,172 people with the first name Roderick, which placed it at #1,210 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
#1,210
National first-name rank
People counted
32K
32,172 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
10.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
60.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Roderick
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roderick is Black at 60.4%. The next largest groups are White (27.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.7%). 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 Roderick 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 Roderick at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American60.4% · 19,441
- White27.6% · 8,881
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.7% · 1,517
- Hispanic or Latino3.4% · 1,091
- Two or more races2.8% · 902
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 340
Gender
Gender distribution for Roderick
Out of the 47,351 babies given the name Roderick since 1880, 99.4% 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.
Roderick as a male name
- Ranked #1,909 in 2024
- 83 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1971 (1,057 births)
Roderick as a female name
- Ranked #11,408 in 1988
- 6 female births in 1988
- Peak: 1976 (14 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Roderick appears almost entirely male. Of the 32,175 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Roderick: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Roderick from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 9,704 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
Roderick 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 Roderick during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rodericks live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. Texas, Alabama, California recorded the most babies named Roderick, while South Dakota, New Hampshire, North Dakota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 886 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Roderick
The name Roderick has its origins in the Germanic languages, derived from the elements "hrod" meaning "fame" and "ric" meaning "power" or "ruler". It first appeared in the 8th century among the Visigoths, a Germanic tribe that ruled parts of the Iberian Peninsula and southern France.
The earliest recorded use of the name Roderick can be found in the chronicles of the Visigothic kings, where it was spelled as "Roderic" or "Roderico". One of the most notable historical figures with this name was Roderic, the last Visigothic king of Spain, who reigned from 710 to 711 AD and was defeated by the Moorish invasion, leading to the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula.
In the Middle Ages, the name Roderick gained popularity across Europe, particularly in England and Scotland. It was sometimes anglicized as "Roderick" or "Rodrick". One of the earliest recorded examples of this spelling is Roderick Macdonald, a Scottish nobleman who lived in the 13th century.
During the Renaissance, the name Roderick was associated with literary figures and intellectuals. One notable example is the Spanish writer and humanist Rodrigo de Zayas (1455-1511), who was also known as Roderico de Zayas.
In the 19th century, the name Roderick became popular in English-speaking countries, particularly in the United States and Britain. Some notable individuals with this name include:
1. Roderick Impey Murchison (1792-1871), a Scottish geologist and one of the founders of the Geological Society of London.
2. Roderick Dhu, a fictional character in Sir Walter Scott's poem "The Lady of the Lake" (1810).
3. Roderick MacIver (1819-1890), a Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist.
4. Roderick Maclean (1853-1933), a Canadian politician and lawyer.
5. Roderick Seidenberg (1859-1936), a German-American fencer and fencing instructor.
Throughout its history, the name Roderick has been associated with strength, power, and fame, reflecting its Germanic roots. While its popularity has fluctuated over time, it remains a distinctive and historically significant name with a rich cultural heritage.
People
Roderick + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Roderick 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
Roderick: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Roderick?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 38,471 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Roderick 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 8,909 US residents.
Is Roderick a common name?
We classify Roderick as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 47,351 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Roderick most popular?
The single biggest year for Roderick was 1971, when 1,067 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Roderick is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Roderick in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 32,172 people with the name Roderick, or 10.65 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,210 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 Roderick 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 Roderick?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Roderick appears almost entirely male. Of the 32,175 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 Roderick?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roderick is Black at 60.4%. The next largest groups are White (27.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.7%). 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 Roderick most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Roderick in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.4% (19,441 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 Roderick in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Roderick a male name?
Yes, 99.4% of people registered as Roderick 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 Roderick still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Roderick 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 Roderick 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 Roderick?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Roderick on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.