Rorie
A Scottish given name originating as a pet form of Roderick.
Name Census estimates that about 1,006 living Americans carry the first name Rorie. It is a predominantly female name (98.7% of registrations). The average person named Rorie today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rorie births was 2023 (69 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rorie. 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.
Key insights
- • Rorie is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 340,710 Americans
Peak year
2023
69 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2022 SSA rank
#2,954
Tracked since 1949
Gender
Gender distribution for Rorie
Rorie leans heavily female at 98.7% of total registrations, but 13 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Rorie as a male name
- Ranked #9,663 in 2022
- 8 male births in 2022
- Peak: 2022 (8 births)
Rorie as a female name
- Ranked #2,954 in 2024
- 56 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (69 births)
Popularity
Rorie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rorie from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 380 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rorie remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rorie 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 Rorie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rories live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. Texas, California, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Rorie, while Wisconsin, Utah, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rorie
The name Rorie has its origins in the Scottish Gaelic language, where it is a diminutive form of the name Roderick, which itself derives from the Germanic elements "hrod" meaning "fame" and "ric" meaning "power" or "ruler". The name first emerged in the Middle Ages, around the 11th or 12th century, and was commonly used in Scotland and the Scottish Isles.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rorie can be found in the Annals of Ulster, a chronicle of medieval Irish history, which mentions a "Rorie Mac Somhairle" in the year 1164. This Rorie was likely a member of the powerful Clan Donald, a Scottish clan descended from Somerled, the King of the Isles.
In the 16th century, a notable figure named Rorie Mor MacLeod (1570-1626) was the chief of the Clan MacLeod of Lewis, a branch of the larger Clan MacLeod. He played a significant role in the ongoing feuds and conflicts between the clans of the Scottish Isles during that turbulent period.
Another prominent bearer of the name was Rorie Mackenzie (1597-1633), a Scottish nobleman and the 2nd Earl of Cromarty. He was involved in various military campaigns and served as a member of the Privy Council of Scotland.
In the realm of literature, one of the earliest references to the name Rorie can be found in the 16th-century Scottish poem "The Complaynt of Scotland", which mentions a character named "Rorie the Rammaser".
Moving forward in time, the 19th century saw the birth of Rorie William Purcell Llewellyn (1840-1904), a Welsh-born businessman who made his fortune in the Australian gold rush and later became a prominent philanthropist.
While not as common as in previous centuries, the name Rorie has continued to be used sporadically throughout history, with notable bearers including Rorie Delargy (1913-1988), an Irish folklorist and writer, and Rorie Mackenzie (born 1965), a Scottish film director and screenwriter.
People
Rorie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rorie 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
Rorie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rorie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,006 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rorie 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 340,710 US residents.
Is Rorie a common name?
We classify Rorie as "Rare". It ranks above 90.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,035 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rorie most popular?
The single biggest year for Rorie was 2023, when 69 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rorie is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Rorie a female name?
Yes, 98.7% of people registered as Rorie 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.
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.