Roger
Of Germanic origin, a name meaning "famous warrior" or "famous spearman".
Name Census estimates that about 281,245 living Americans carry the first name Roger. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Roger today is around 65 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Roger births was 1953 (13,199 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Roger. 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 Roger with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Roger is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 1,688 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Roger have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
281K
~ 1 in 1,219 Americans
Peak year
1953
13,199 babies that year
Average age
65
years old
2024 SSA rank
#750
Tracked since 1880
Census
Roger in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 294,718 people with the first name Roger, which placed it at #174 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
#174
National first-name rank
People counted
295K
294,718 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
97.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Roger
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roger is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.0%) and Black (5.7%). 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 Roger 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 Roger at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.3% · 242,540
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 20,550
- Black or African American5.7% · 16,839
- Two or more races2.2% · 6,382
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 6,156
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 2,251
Gender
Gender distribution for Roger
Out of the 443,528 babies given the name Roger since 1880, 99.6% 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.
Roger as a male name
- Ranked #750 in 2024
- 340 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1953 (13,171 births)
Roger as a female name
- Ranked #13,064 in 1993
- 6 female births in 1993
- Peak: 1943 (43 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Roger appears almost entirely male. Of the 294,726 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Roger: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Roger from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 110,438 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Roger 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 Roger during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rogers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Ohio, California, New York recorded the most babies named Roger, while Alaska, Delaware, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 8,586 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Roger
The name Roger is derived from the Germanic name Rodger or Hruodgair, composed of the elements hruod, meaning "fame" or "renowned", and gair, meaning "spear". It gained popularity in medieval England after the Norman conquest of 1066, when it was introduced by Norman settlers.
Roger was a common name among the Norman nobility and quickly spread throughout England and other parts of Europe. One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Roger I, a Norman nobleman who ruled as the Earl of Shrewsbury and Arundel in the late 11th century.
In the 12th century, the name gained further prominence with the likes of Roger of Salisbury, a prominent English bishop and Lord Chancellor to King Henry I. Another notable figure was Roger of Howden, an English chronicler and historian who documented the reigns of several English kings in the late 12th and early 13th centuries.
During the Middle Ages, the name Roger was often associated with chivalry and knighthood. One of the most famous bearers was Roger de Flor, a military adventurer and leader of the Catalan Company, a mercenary group that played a significant role in the Byzantine civil wars of the early 14th century.
In the Renaissance period, the name continued to be popular, particularly in England and France. One of the most celebrated figures was Roger Bacon, an English philosopher, and scholar who made significant contributions to the study of natural sciences and is often regarded as an early advocate of the modern scientific method.
Other notable individuals named Roger include Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island and a champion of religious freedom in the 17th century; Roger Sherman, an American statesman and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution; and Roger Bannister, the British athlete who broke the four-minute mile barrier in 1954.
Throughout history, the name Roger has been associated with a sense of strength, courage, and determination, reflecting its Germanic roots and the valor of its early bearers. While its popularity has fluctuated over time, it remains a well-recognized and respected name across various cultures and regions.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Roger
People
Roger + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Roger 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
Roger: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Roger?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 281,245 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Roger 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 1,219 US residents.
Is Roger a common name?
We classify Roger as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 443,528 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Roger most popular?
The single biggest year for Roger was 1953, when 13,199 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Roger is about 65 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Roger in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 294,718 people with the name Roger, or 97.58 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #174 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 Roger 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 Roger?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Roger appears almost entirely male. Of the 294,726 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 Roger?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roger is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.0%) and Black (5.7%). 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 Roger most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Roger in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.3% (242,540 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 Roger in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Roger a male name?
Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Roger 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 Roger still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Roger 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 Roger 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 Roger?
Find out how many people have the name Roger on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.