Ron
A masculine name of Norman origin meaning "advice ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 29,099 living Americans carry the first name Ron. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ron today is around 60 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ron births was 1960 (1,888 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ron. 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 Ron with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Ron is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 70 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1960s, recent registration numbers for Ron have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
29K
~ 1 in 11,779 Americans
Peak year
1960
1,888 babies that year
Average age
60
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,664
Tracked since 1919
Census
Ron in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 74,027 people with the first name Ron, which placed it at #697 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
#697
National first-name rank
People counted
74K
74,027 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
24.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ron
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ron is White at 79.7%. The next largest groups are Black (8.7%) and Hispanic (4.5%). 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 Ron 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 Ron at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.7% · 58,980
- Black or African American8.7% · 6,432
- Hispanic or Latino4.5% · 3,297
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 2,623
- Two or more races2.6% · 1,907
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 788
Gender
Gender distribution for Ron
Out of the 36,411 babies given the name Ron since 1880, 99.8% 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.
Ron as a male name
- Ranked #3,664 in 2024
- 31 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1960 (1,888 births)
Ron as a female name
- Ranked #11,594 in 1983
- 5 female births in 1983
- Peak: 1967 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ron appears almost entirely male. Of the 74,027 people counted with this name, 99.7% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Ron: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ron from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 13,143 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ron 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 Ron during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. California, Michigan, Ohio recorded the most babies named Ron, while Alaska, Maine, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 698 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ron
The name Ron is derived from the Old Norse word "Rǫgnvaldr", which can be broken down into two components: "regin" meaning "gods" or "divine powers", and "valdr" meaning "ruler" or "commander". This suggests that the name may have originally been associated with a divine or powerful ruler.
In the Viking Age, the name Rǫgnvaldr was borne by several notable figures, including Rognavald, Earl of Møre, a Norwegian earl who lived in the late 9th and early 10th centuries. It was also the name of Rognavald Kali Kolsson, a Viking chieftain who ruled over the Faroe Islands in the 11th century.
As the Vikings spread across Europe, the name Rǫgnvaldr evolved into various forms in different languages. In Old English, it became "Reginald" or "Reynold", while in French it was rendered as "Renaud" or "Reynaud". The shortened form "Ron" likely emerged as a diminutive or nickname for these longer variants.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Ron can be found in the Domesday Book, a survey of landowners in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The book mentions a landowner named "Rono" in Suffolk.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Ron or its variants. These include Ron Hubbard (1911-1986), an American author and the founder of the Church of Scientology, and Ron Dellums (1935-2018), an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative and Mayor of Oakland, California.
In the world of sports, Ron Artest (born 1979) is a former NBA player known for his defensive skills and controversial on-court behavior, while Ron Barassi (born 1936) is an Australian football legend who played and coached in the Australian Football League.
Another notable bearer of the name was Ron Moody (1924-2015), a British actor best known for his role as Fagin in the 1968 film adaptation of Oliver Twist.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ron
People
Ron + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ron 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
Ron: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ron?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 29,099 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ron 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 11,779 US residents.
Is Ron a common name?
We classify Ron as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 36,411 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ron most popular?
The single biggest year for Ron was 1960, when 1,888 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ron is about 60 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ron in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 74,027 people with the name Ron, or 24.51 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #697 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 Ron 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 Ron?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ron appears almost entirely male. Of the 74,027 people counted with this name, 99.7% 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 Ron?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ron is White at 79.7%. The next largest groups are Black (8.7%) and Hispanic (4.5%). 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 Ron most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ron in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.7% (58,980 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 Ron in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ron a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Ron 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 Ron still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ron 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 Ron 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 Ron as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Ron, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.