Roel
A masculine Dutch/German diminutive name derived from Rudolf or Roland.
Name Census estimates that about 4,224 living Americans carry the first name Roel. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Roel today is around 38 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Roel births was 2000 (83 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Roel. 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 Roel with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
4.2K
~ 1 in 81,144 Americans
Peak year
2000
83 babies that year
Average age
38
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,250
Tracked since 1926
Census
Roel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,770 people with the first name Roel, which placed it at #4,062 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
#4,062
National first-name rank
People counted
4.8K
4,770 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
78.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Roel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roel is Hispanic at 78.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (16.1%) and White (4.0%). 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 Roel 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 Roel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino78.1% · 3,724
- Asian and Pacific Islander16.1% · 769
- White4.0% · 192
- Black or African American1.3% · 63
- Two or more races0.4% · 17
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 5
Popularity
Roel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Roel from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 698 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1980s peak, Roel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Roel 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 Roel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Roels live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Texas, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Roel, while Washington, Illinois, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 956 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Roel
The name Roel is a Dutch variant of the Germanic name Rudolf. It originated in the Netherlands during the Middle Ages. The name Rudolf is derived from the Germanic elements "hruod" meaning "fame" and "wolf" meaning "wolf."
In the 8th century, the name Rudolf appeared in the historical records of the Frankish Empire. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Rudolph I, the Count of Auxerre, who lived in the 9th century.
During the Middle Ages, the name Rudolf gained popularity across Europe, particularly in German-speaking regions. It was often associated with nobility and royalty. For example, Rudolf I of Habsburg, who reigned as King of Germany and Holy Roman Emperor from 1273 to 1291, was a prominent figure in medieval history.
The Dutch variant Roel emerged in the Netherlands as a diminutive form of Rudolf. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Roel was in the 14th century, when a man named Roel van Brakel was mentioned in historical documents from the city of Nijmegen.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Roel. One example is Roel Brouwers (1885-1959), a Dutch painter and graphic artist known for his landscapes and cityscapes. Another is Roel Janssen (1928-2022), a Dutch actor and voice actor who had a prolific career spanning over six decades.
In the world of sports, Roel Velzen (1889-1979) was a Dutch footballer who played as a goalkeeper for the Netherlands national team in the early 20th century. Roel Kuijten (born 1981) is a former Dutch professional footballer who played as a midfielder for clubs like PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord.
Roel Reiné (born 1964) is a Dutch film director and screenwriter known for his work in action and science fiction genres, including films like "The Marine" and "Death Race 2."
People
Roel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Roel 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
Roel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Roel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,224 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Roel 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 81,144 US residents.
Is Roel a common name?
We classify Roel as "Rare". It ranks above 96.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,658 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Roel most popular?
The single biggest year for Roel was 2000, when 83 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Roel 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 Roel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,770 people with the name Roel, or 1.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,062 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 Roel 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 Roel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Roel appears almost entirely male. Of the 4,768 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Roel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roel is Hispanic at 78.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (16.1%) and White (4.0%). 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 Roel most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Roel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.1% (3,724 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 Roel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Roel a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Roel 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 Roel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Roel 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 Roel 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 Roel?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.