Romulo
A masculine name of Latin origin referring to Rome or its legendary founder.
Name Census estimates that about 685 living Americans carry the first name Romulo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Romulo today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Romulo births was 1993 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Romulo. 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.
People living today
685
~ 1 in 500,371 Americans
Peak year
1993
18 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,666
Tracked since 1912
Census
Romulo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,767 people with the first name Romulo, which placed it at #4,798 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
#4,798
National first-name rank
People counted
3.8K
3,767 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
58.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Romulo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Romulo is Hispanic at 58.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (33.6%) and White (6.4%). 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 Romulo 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 Romulo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino58.1% · 2,188
- Asian and Pacific Islander33.6% · 1,267
- White6.4% · 240
- Two or more races0.8% · 32
- Black or African American0.8% · 29
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 11
Popularity
Romulo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Romulo from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 122 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1970s peak, Romulo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Romulo 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 Romulo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Romulos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Romulo, while New York, California, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 55 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Romulo
The name Romulo is of Latin origin, derived from the ancient Roman name Romulus. The name Romulus is believed to be rooted in the Etruscan word "rumon," which means "teat" or "breast," possibly referring to the legendary story of Romulus and his twin brother Remus being nursed by a she-wolf as infants.
The name Romulus is most famously associated with the legendary founder and first king of Rome, Romulus, who, according to Roman mythology, founded the city of Rome in 753 BCE along with his twin brother Remus. The legend has been depicted in various ancient texts and works of literature, including Livy's "Ab Urbe Condita" and Virgil's "Aeneid."
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Romulo can be found in the works of ancient Roman historians and writers, such as Plutarch and Suetonius, who documented the lives of prominent Romans. The name Romulo was also used by several Roman emperors and noble families throughout the Roman Empire.
Some notable individuals with the name Romulo throughout history include Romulo Gallegos (1884-1969), a Venezuelan novelist and politician who served as the President of Venezuela from 1948 to 1949. Another famous bearer of the name was Romulo O'Farrill (1917-2006), a Mexican-American musician and bandleader known for his contributions to Latin jazz.
In the 20th century, Romulo Betancourt (1908-1981) was a Venezuelan politician who served as the President of Venezuela from 1959 to 1964. Romulo Díaz de la Vega (1801-1877) was a Mexican general and politician who played a significant role in the Mexican-American War and the Reform War in Mexico.
Romulo Naón (1875-1941) was an Argentine diplomat and politician who served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina and played a crucial role in the establishment of the League of Nations. These are just a few examples of notable individuals who have carried the name Romulo throughout history.
People
Romulo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Romulo 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
Romulo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Romulo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 685 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Romulo 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 500,371 US residents.
Is Romulo a common name?
We classify Romulo as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 834 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Romulo most popular?
The single biggest year for Romulo was 1993, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Romulo is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Romulo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,767 people with the name Romulo, or 1.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,798 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 Romulo 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 Romulo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Romulo appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,771 people counted with this name, 99.8% 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 Romulo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Romulo is Hispanic at 58.1%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (33.6%) and White (6.4%). 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 Romulo most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Romulo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 58.1% (2,188 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 Romulo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Romulo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Romulo 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 Romulo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Romulo 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 Romulo 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 have Romulo as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.