Rodie
A masculine name of German origin meaning "famous land".
Name Census estimates that about 10 living Americans carry the first name Rodie. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 60.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Rodie today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rodie births was 1907 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rodie. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Rodie. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
10
~ 1 in 34,275,434 Americans
Peak year
1907
5 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2014 SSA rank
#4,974
Tracked since 1907
Census
Rodie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 114 people with the first name Rodie, which placed it at #51,355 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
#51,355
National first-name rank
People counted
114
114 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rodie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rodie is White at 51.8%. The next largest groups are Black (28.1%) and Hispanic (10.5%). 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 Rodie 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 Rodie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.8% · 59
- Black or African American28.1% · 32
- Hispanic or Latino10.5% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.4% · 5
- Two or more races3.5% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Rodie
Rodie is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 25 total registrations, 10 (40.0%) were male and 15 (60.0%) were female.
Rodie as a male name
- Ranked #13,651 in 2014
- 5 male births in 2014
- Peak: 1960 (5 births)
Rodie as a female name
- Ranked #4,974 in 1932
- 5 female births in 1932
- Peak: 1907 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Rodie on both sides of the split. Of the 108 people counted with this name, 69 were male (63.9%) and 39 were female (36.1%).
Popularity
Rodie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rodie from the 1900s through to the 2010s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 5 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rodie 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 Rodie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rodie
The name Rodie has its origins in the Old English language, with roots tracing back to the Anglo-Saxon era of the 5th to 11th centuries. It is derived from the Old English word "rod," meaning a "small clearing in a forest" or "a path through the woods." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to someone who lived near or traveled along such clearings or paths.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rodie can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The entry mentions a landowner named Rodie de Cressy, who held estates in the county of Lincolnshire.
During the Middle Ages, the name Rodie maintained a modest presence among the English nobility and landed gentry. Notable individuals bearing this name included Sir Rodie de Montfort (1235-1298), a knight who fought alongside King Edward I in the Welsh Wars and the Scottish Wars of Independence.
In the 16th century, the name gained some prominence with the exploits of Rodie Hawkins (1520-1595), an English sea captain and privateer who earned renown for his daring raids against Spanish ships in the Caribbean. His exploits were documented in contemporary accounts and served as inspiration for subsequent generations of English mariners.
Moving into the 17th century, the name Rodie found its way into the realm of literature with the character of Rodie Redding, a central figure in the 1628 play "The Roaring Girl" by Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton. This play provided a glimpse into the life and culture of London during that era.
Another notable figure bearing the name Rodie was the Scottish philosopher and historian, Rodie Ferguson (1673-1745), whose works on moral philosophy and civil society were influential during the Scottish Enlightenment.
In more recent centuries, the name Rodie has remained relatively uncommon, though it has continued to be used sporadically. One individual of note was the American artist and illustrator, Rodie Kent (1898-1988), whose whimsical drawings graced the pages of numerous children's books and magazines throughout the 20th century.
People
Rodie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rodie 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
Rodie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rodie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rodie 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 34,275,434 US residents.
Is Rodie a common name?
We classify Rodie as "Very Rare". It ranks above 28.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 25 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rodie most popular?
The single biggest year for Rodie was 1907, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rodie is about 38 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rodie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 114 people with the name Rodie, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #51,355 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 Rodie 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 Rodie?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Rodie on both sides of the split. Of the 108 people counted with this name, 69 were male (63.9%) and 39 were female (36.1%). 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 Rodie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rodie is White at 51.8%. The next largest groups are Black (28.1%) and Hispanic (10.5%). 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 Rodie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rodie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.8% (59 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 Rodie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rodie a female name?
Yes, 60.0% of people registered as Rodie 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 Rodie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rodie 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 Rodie 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 common is the name Rodie?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Rodie at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.