Rosco
A masculine name, probably a variation of the Latin name "Roscoe" meaning "from the deer meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 493 living Americans carry the first name Rosco. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rosco today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rosco births was 1922 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rosco. 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 Rosco with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
493
~ 1 in 695,242 Americans
Peak year
1922
42 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,728
Tracked since 1883
Census
Rosco in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 535 people with the first name Rosco, which placed it at #19,659 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
#19,659
National first-name rank
People counted
535
535 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rosco
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rosco is White at 51.6%. The next largest groups are Black (30.7%) and Hispanic (8.2%). 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 Rosco 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 Rosco at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.6% · 276
- Black or African American30.7% · 164
- Hispanic or Latino8.2% · 44
- Two or more races4.7% · 25
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 15
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.1% · 11
Popularity
Rosco: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rosco from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 330 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rosco 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 Rosco during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Roscos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 10 states and territories. North Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas recorded the most babies named Rosco, while West Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 11 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rosco
The name Rosco is of English origin, derived from the Old Norse name Rothsskogr, which means "famous power" or "red-haired power." The name's earliest known use dates back to the 11th century in England, where it was initially spelled Rothsskogr or Rothscogr.
During the Middle Ages, the name gained popularity among the Anglo-Saxon nobility and was sometimes associated with strength and bravery. One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Rothsskogr of Wessex, a Saxon warrior who fought alongside King Alfred the Great against the Danish invaders in the 9th century.
In the 13th century, the name appears in the historical chronicles of Matthew Paris, a Benedictine monk and chronicler, who mentioned a knight named Rosco de Montfort, a companion of Simon de Montfort, the 6th Earl of Leicester, during the Second Barons' War in 1264.
As the name evolved over time, it took on various spellings, including Roscoe, Roscow, and eventually, the modern form, Rosco. One of the most notable historical figures bearing this name was Roscoe Conkling (1829-1888), a prominent American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. Senator from New York and played a significant role in the political affairs of the late 19th century.
Other notable individuals with the name Rosco include Rosco P. Coltrane (1832-1917), a Confederate Army officer during the American Civil War; Rosco Gordon (1928-2002), an American blues singer and songwriter; and Rosco Briggs (1932-2011), an American basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the 1950s and 1960s.
Throughout history, the name Rosco has been associated with strength, power, and bravery, reflecting its Old Norse roots. While its popularity has waxed and waned over the centuries, it remains a distinctive and historically significant name with a rich cultural heritage.
People
Rosco + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rosco 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
Rosco: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rosco?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 493 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rosco 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 695,242 US residents.
Is Rosco a common name?
We classify Rosco as "Very Rare". It ranks above 84.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,433 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rosco most popular?
The single biggest year for Rosco was 1922, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rosco is about 53 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rosco in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 535 people with the name Rosco, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,659 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 Rosco 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 Rosco?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rosco leans strongly male. 525 people counted with this name were male (98.9%), compared with 6 female bearers (1.1%). 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 Rosco?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rosco is White at 51.6%. The next largest groups are Black (30.7%) and Hispanic (8.2%). 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 Rosco most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rosco in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.6% (276 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 Rosco in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rosco a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rosco 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 Rosco still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rosco 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 Rosco 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 are named Rosco?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.