Rolston
A masculine name of English origin meaning "rye hill settlement".
Name Census estimates that about 5 living Americans carry the first name Rolston. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rolston today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rolston births was 1998 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rolston. 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 Rolston. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
5
~ 1 in 68,550,868 Americans
Peak year
1998
5 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
1998 SSA rank
#10,970
Tracked since 1998
Census
Rolston in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 133 people with the first name Rolston, which placed it at #48,223 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
#48,223
National first-name rank
People counted
133
133 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
82.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rolston
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rolston is Black at 82.0%. The next largest groups are White (15.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.5%). 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 Rolston 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 Rolston at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American82.0% · 109
- White15.8% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 2
- Hispanic or Latino0.8% · 1
Popularity
Rolston: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Rolston 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 Rolston during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 5 | 0 | 5 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Rolston
The given name Rolston is an English name with its origins dating back to the Middle Ages. It is believed to have been derived from a combination of the Old English words "rol," meaning "a roll or bundle," and "tun," meaning "an enclosure or settlement." This suggests that the name may have originally referred to someone who lived in a settlement or village associated with the production or storage of rolls or bundles.
During the medieval period, the name was commonly found in various parts of England, particularly in the northern regions. In historical records from the 13th and 14th centuries, the name appears with various spellings, including Rolstun, Roleston, and Rolston.
The earliest known reference to the name Rolston can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This historical record mentions a landowner named Rolston in the county of Yorkshire.
Throughout the centuries, several notable individuals have borne the name Rolston. One of the earliest recorded figures was Sir John Rolston (1285-1348), a knight and landowner from Nottinghamshire, England, who fought in the Scottish Wars of Independence under King Edward III.
Another historical figure was Thomas Rolston (1540-1602), an English clergyman and scholar who served as the Bishop of Dunkeld in Scotland during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. He is known for his contributions to the translation of the Bible into Scots Gaelic.
In the 17th century, William Rolston (1620-1680) was a prominent merchant and landowner in the colony of Virginia. He played a significant role in the development of the tobacco trade and served as a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
During the American Revolutionary War, Colonel John Rolston (1745-1821) was a distinguished officer in the Continental Army. He fought in several key battles, including the Battle of Monmouth, and later served as a delegate to the Virginia Convention that ratified the United States Constitution.
In more recent times, Holmes Rolston III (1932-2017) was a renowned American philosopher and professor who made significant contributions to the field of environmental ethics. He was a pioneer in the development of the concept of intrinsic value in nature and argued for the moral consideration of non-human beings.
While these are just a few examples, the name Rolston has been carried by individuals from various walks of life throughout history, spanning different regions and time periods.
People
Rolston + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rolston 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
Rolston: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rolston?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 5 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rolston 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 68,550,868 US residents.
Is Rolston a common name?
We classify Rolston as "Very Rare". It ranks above 18.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rolston most popular?
The single biggest year for Rolston was 1998, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rolston is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rolston in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 133 people with the name Rolston, or 0.04 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #48,223 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 Rolston 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 Rolston?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rolston appears almost entirely male. Of the 139 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Rolston?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rolston is Black at 82.0%. The next largest groups are White (15.8%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (1.5%). 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 Rolston most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rolston in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.0% (109 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 Rolston in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rolston a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rolston 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 Rolston still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rolston 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 Rolston 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 called Rolston?
Find out how many people share the name Rolston on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.