Rome
A masculine name of Italian origin meaning "citizen" or "person from Rome".
Name Census estimates that about 4,926 living Americans carry the first name Rome. It sits at #453 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (91.8% of registrations). The average person named Rome today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rome births was 2024 (751 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rome. 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 Rome with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Rome is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.9K
~ 1 in 69,581 Americans
Peak year
2024
751 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#453
Tracked since 1882
Census
Rome in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,515 people with the first name Rome, which placed it at #6,395 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
#6,395
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,515 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
36.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rome
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rome is White at 36.7%. The next largest groups are Black (24.8%) and Hispanic (22.4%). 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 Rome 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 Rome at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White36.7% · 922
- Black or African American24.8% · 623
- Hispanic or Latino22.4% · 564
- Two or more races9.6% · 241
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.4% · 137
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 28
Gender
Gender distribution for Rome
Rome leans heavily male at 91.8% of total registrations, but 437 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Rome as a male name
- Ranked #453 in 2024
- 688 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (688 births)
Rome as a female name
- Ranked #2,732 in 2024
- 63 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (63 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rome leans strongly male. 2,237 people counted with this name were male (89.0%), compared with 276 female bearers (11.0%).
Popularity
Rome: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rome from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 2,445 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
Rome 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 Rome during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Romes live
The SSA's state-level files cover 35 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Rome, while New Mexico, Kansas, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 85 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rome
The name Rome has its origins in the ancient Latin language and is derived from the name of the famous Italian city of Rome, which was founded in 753 BC. The city's name is thought to come from the Ancient Greek word "ῥώμη" (rhōmē), meaning "strength" or "power".
Rome was the capital of the Roman Empire, which dominated the Mediterranean region for centuries, and the name has been associated with power, strength, and imperial grandeur throughout history. In ancient times, the name was sometimes used to refer to the Roman people or the Roman state itself.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rome being used as a personal name is in the 5th century AD, when a Roman soldier named Rome is mentioned in the writings of the historian Procopius of Caesarea. However, it is likely that the name was used earlier than this, given the significance of the city of Rome in the ancient world.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Rome. One of the most famous was Rome of Villeneuve, a 13th-century French scholar and philosopher who wrote extensively on medieval logic and metaphysics (c. 1230 - c. 1292).
Another notable bearer of the name was Rome Damini, an Italian painter and architect who lived during the Renaissance period (1508 - 1573). He is best known for his work on the Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia, Italy.
In the 18th century, Rome de l'Isle was a French geographer and cartographer who produced some of the most accurate maps of his time (1736 - 1805). His work was highly influential and helped shape the field of cartography.
A more recent figure was Rome Stevenson, an American author and journalist who wrote extensively about the American West in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (1878 - 1962). His books, such as "The Saga of Ben Holladay" and "The Covered Wagon Days," provided vivid accounts of life on the frontier.
Finally, Rome Rasiowa was a Polish mathematician and logician who made significant contributions to the field of algebraic logic in the 20th century (1910 - 1992). Her work on Boolean algebras and their applications in computer science was groundbreaking.
People
Rome + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rome 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
Rome: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rome?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,926 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rome 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 69,581 US residents.
Is Rome a common name?
We classify Rome as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 5,302 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rome most popular?
The single biggest year for Rome was 2024, when 751 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rome is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rome in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,515 people with the name Rome, or 0.83 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,395 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 Rome 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 Rome?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rome leans strongly male. 2,237 people counted with this name were male (89.0%), compared with 276 female bearers (11.0%). 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 Rome?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rome is White at 36.7%. The next largest groups are Black (24.8%) and Hispanic (22.4%). 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 Rome most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rome in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.7% (922 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 Rome in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rome a male name?
Yes, 91.8% of people registered as Rome 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 Rome still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rome 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 Rome 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 Rome?
See how many people have the name Rome on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.