Rook
A unisex English name meaning a member of a crow family.
Name Census estimates that about 656 living Americans carry the first name Rook. It is a predominantly male name (96.2% of registrations). The average person named Rook today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rook births was 2023 (79 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rook. 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 Rook with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
656
~ 1 in 522,491 Americans
Peak year
2023
79 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,384
Tracked since 2001
Census
Rook in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 462 people with the first name Rook, which placed it at #21,817 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
#21,817
National first-name rank
People counted
462
462 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rook
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rook is White at 78.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.4%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Rook 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 Rook at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.8% · 364
- Two or more races10.4% · 48
- Hispanic or Latino7.1% · 33
- Black or African American1.7% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Rook
Rook leans heavily male at 96.2% of total registrations, but 25 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Rook as a male name
- Ranked #2,384 in 2024
- 59 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (71 births)
Rook as a female name
- Ranked #13,151 in 2024
- 7 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rook leans strongly male. 395 people counted with this name were male (85.1%), compared with 69 female bearers (14.9%).
Popularity
Rook: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rook from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 322 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
Rook 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 Rook during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rooks live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Texas, California, Utah recorded the most babies named Rook, while Ohio, Florida, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 10 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rook
The name Rook has its origins in the Dutch and German languages, where it is derived from the word "rok," meaning a rook, which is a type of crow. The name likely originated in the Netherlands and northern Germany during the Middle Ages, and it may have been used as a nickname or surname for someone who lived near a rookery or had some association with these birds.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rook dates back to the 14th century, when a man named Rook von Kreuznach was mentioned in historical records from the Rhineland region of Germany. In the 15th century, there are records of a Dutch merchant named Rook van der Meer who traded in the city of Amsterdam.
The name Rook has also appeared in various literary works throughout history. In Geoffrey Chaucer's famous 14th-century work "The Canterbury Tales," one of the characters is referred to as "the Rook" in reference to his black attire, which may have been a nod to the bird's dark plumage.
One notable figure who bore the name Rook was Rook Woodward (1548-1612), an English clergyman and academic who served as the Master of Peterhouse, a college at the University of Cambridge. Another was Rook Swinton (1672-1736), a British politician who served as a member of Parliament for the constituency of Knaresborough.
In the 19th century, Rook Hawkins (1804-1878) was a prominent American businessman and banker who founded the Rook County Bank in Missouri. Around the same time, Rook Nielson (1822-1892) was a Danish explorer and sailor who was part of the first successful expedition to reach the North Pole.
Finally, in the 20th century, Rook Bowers (1912-1997) was an American artist and painter known for his abstract expressionist works, while Rook Saunders (1928-2008) was a British actor and playwright who appeared in numerous television shows and films.
People
Rook + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rook 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
Rook: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rook?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 656 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rook 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 522,491 US residents.
Is Rook a common name?
We classify Rook as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 661 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rook most popular?
The single biggest year for Rook was 2023, when 79 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rook is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rook in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 462 people with the name Rook, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,817 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 Rook 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 Rook?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rook leans strongly male. 395 people counted with this name were male (85.1%), compared with 69 female bearers (14.9%). 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 Rook?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rook is White at 78.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (10.4%) and Hispanic (7.1%). 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 Rook most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rook in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.8% (364 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 Rook in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rook a male name?
Yes, 96.2% of people registered as Rook 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 Rook still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rook 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 Rook 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 share the name Rook?
Want to know how many people have the name Rook? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.