Royden
A masculine name derived from an Old English surname meaning "rye valley".
Name Census estimates that about 437 living Americans carry the first name Royden. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Royden today is around 53 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Royden births was 1918 (21 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Royden. 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
437
~ 1 in 784,335 Americans
Peak year
1918
21 babies that year
Average age
53
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,802
Tracked since 1900
Census
Royden in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 517 people with the first name Royden, which placed it at #20,108 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
#20,108
National first-name rank
People counted
517
517 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Royden
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Royden is White at 61.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (18.2%) and Black (8.3%). 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 Royden 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 Royden at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.5% · 318
- Asian and Pacific Islander18.2% · 94
- Black or African American8.3% · 43
- Two or more races5.8% · 30
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 10
Popularity
Royden: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Royden from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 151 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
Royden 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 Royden during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Roydens live
Origin
Meaning and history of Royden
The given name Royden has its origins in the Old English language, with roots that can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon period, around the 5th to 11th centuries CE. The name is believed to be derived from the Old English words "rōd" meaning "cross" and "denu" meaning "valley," suggesting a possible connection to a location with a valley or cross.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Royden can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landowners and their properties in England, compiled in 1086 CE by order of William the Conqueror. The name appears in various forms, such as "Radedene" and "Rodedene," referring to settlements or places in different regions of England.
In terms of historical references, the name Royden is not widely mentioned in ancient texts or religious scriptures. However, it gained popularity as a given name during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period in England. Some notable individuals who bore the name Royden include Royden Somerville (1587–1639), an English lawyer and politician who served as a Member of Parliament.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the name Royden continued to be used, albeit less frequently. One notable figure from this period was Royden Pamplin (1670–1744), an English architect and surveyor who worked on several notable projects in London.
In the 19th century, the name Royden experienced a resurgence in popularity. One prominent individual with this name was Royden Glyn Roberts (1835–1899), a Welsh architect and designer who contributed to the Gothic Revival architectural style in Britain.
Moving into the 20th century, Royden Vaux Keith (1888–1960) was an American composer and music educator known for his contributions to choral music. Another notable figure was Royden Rabinowitch (1911–1997), a British-American physicist and academic who made significant contributions to the fields of nuclear physics and radiation chemistry.
While the name Royden has waned in popularity in recent times, it has left a lasting legacy through these historical figures and its unique origins rooted in the Old English language.
People
Royden + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Royden 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
Royden: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Royden?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 437 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Royden 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 784,335 US residents.
Is Royden a common name?
We classify Royden as "Very Rare". It ranks above 83.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 879 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Royden most popular?
The single biggest year for Royden was 1918, when 21 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Royden 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 Royden in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 517 people with the name Royden, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,108 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 Royden 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 Royden?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Royden appears almost entirely male. Of the 516 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 Royden?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Royden is White at 61.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (18.2%) and Black (8.3%). 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 Royden most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Royden in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.5% (318 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 Royden in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Royden a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Royden 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 Royden still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Royden 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 Royden 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 Royden?
Find out how many Americans are named Royden on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.