Romilly
A feminine name of French origin meaning "from the village surrounded by meadows".
Name Census estimates that about 111 living Americans carry the first name Romilly. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Romilly today is around 6 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Romilly births was 2024 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Romilly. 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 Romilly with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
111
~ 1 in 3,087,877 Americans
Peak year
2024
20 babies that year
Average age
6
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,095
Tracked since 2013
Popularity
Romilly: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Romilly from the 2010s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 64 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
Romilly 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 Romilly 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 Romilly
The name Romilly originates from the Old French language and is derived from the Latin words "Roma" meaning Rome and "villa" meaning country house or estate. It likely emerged as a surname in medieval France to denote someone who owned or lived on an estate near Rome.
The name was first recorded in England in the 13th century as a variant of the French surname Romilly or Romelay. The earliest known bearer was Sir John de Romilly, who was granted lands in Yorkshire by King Henry III in 1240.
In the 14th century, the name appeared in historical records as Romylly and Romely. A notable bearer was Sir John Romilly (c.1320-1400), a knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War under King Edward III.
The name Romilly gained popularity in the 16th and 17th centuries during the Renaissance period. One of the most famous bearers was Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818), an English lawyer and reformer who campaigned against the harsh criminal laws of his time.
Another notable figure was Sir John Romilly (1802-1874), a British lawyer and Master of the Rolls, who served as Lord Justice of Appeal. His son, Frederic Romilly (1844-1904), was a distinguished sculptor and artist.
In literature, Romilly is a character in Homer's Iliad, described as a brave Trojan warrior killed by Ajax during the Trojan War. The name also appears in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1798), where Romilly is mentioned as a friend of the poet.
Other bearers of the name Romilly include John Romilly Allen (1847-1907), a British novelist and journalist, and Francis Romilly (1888-1964), a British diplomat and author who served as Ambassador to Greece and Switzerland.
People
Romilly + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Romilly 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
Romilly: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Romilly?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 111 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Romilly 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 3,087,877 US residents.
Is Romilly a common name?
We classify Romilly as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 112 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Romilly most popular?
The single biggest year for Romilly was 2024, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Romilly is about 6 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Romilly in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Romilly a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Romilly 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 Romilly still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Romilly 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 Romilly 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many Americans are named Romilly?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.