Rudi
A masculine German diminutive of Rudolf, meaning "famous wolf".
Name Census estimates that about 1,137 living Americans carry the first name Rudi. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 61.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Rudi today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rudi births was 1986 (41 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rudi. 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 Rudi with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Rudi sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 301,455 Americans
Peak year
1986
41 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,855
Tracked since 1931
Census
Rudi in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,780 people with the first name Rudi, which placed it at #8,195 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
#8,195
National first-name rank
People counted
1.8K
1,780 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
43.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rudi
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rudi is White at 43.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (39.2%) and Black (7.3%). 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 Rudi 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 Rudi at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White43.3% · 770
- Hispanic or Latino39.2% · 698
- Black or African American7.3% · 130
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.7% · 101
- Two or more races3.6% · 64
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 17
Gender
Gender distribution for Rudi
Rudi is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,228 total registrations, 753 (61.3%) were male and 475 (38.7%) were female.
Rudi as a male name
- Ranked #10,673 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1978 (19 births)
Rudi as a female name
- Ranked #6,855 in 2024
- 17 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1986 (27 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Rudi on both sides of the split. Of the 1,784 people counted with this name, 1,269 were male (71.1%) and 515 were female (28.9%).
Popularity
Rudi: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rudi from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 270 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Rudi remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rudi 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 Rudi during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rudis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Rudi, while Florida, Texas, California recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 32 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rudi
The name Rudi has its origins in the German language and is a diminutive form of the name Rudolf. The name Rudolf is derived from the Germanic elements "hruod" meaning "fame" and "wolf" meaning "wolf". Together, these elements combine to form the meaning "famous wolf".
The name Rudi first rose to prominence in the Middle Ages, with the earliest recorded use of the name Rudolf dating back to the 7th century. One of the most notable historical figures to bear the name Rudolf was Rudolf I of Germany, who reigned as the King of Germany from 1273 to 1291.
In the 15th century, the humanist scholar Rudolf Agricola (1444-1485) was a prominent figure in the Renaissance movement in Europe. His works on logic and rhetoric had a significant influence on the development of humanist thought during this period.
Another famous bearer of the name Rudolf was the Archduke Rudolf of Austria (1858-1889), who was the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary and heir apparent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He is best known for his involvement in the Mayerling Incident, which remains a subject of historical debate and controversy.
In the realm of music, the composer Rudolf Serkin (1903-1991) was a highly acclaimed pianist and interpreter of works by composers such as Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart. His performances and recordings are considered among the finest of the 20th century.
Finally, the name Rudi was also borne by the German footballer Rudolf "Rudi" Völler (born 1960), who played as a striker for several top clubs in Germany and represented the national team at multiple World Cup tournaments.
These examples illustrate the enduring popularity and historical significance of the name Rudi, which has been carried by notable figures across various fields throughout the centuries.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Rudi
People
Rudi + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rudi 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
Rudi: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rudi?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,137 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rudi 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 301,455 US residents.
Is Rudi a common name?
We classify Rudi as "Rare". It ranks above 90.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,228 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rudi most popular?
The single biggest year for Rudi was 1986, when 41 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rudi is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rudi in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,780 people with the name Rudi, or 0.59 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #8,195 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 Rudi 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 Rudi?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Rudi on both sides of the split. Of the 1,784 people counted with this name, 1,269 were male (71.1%) and 515 were female (28.9%). 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 Rudi?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rudi is White at 43.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (39.2%) and Black (7.3%). 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 Rudi most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rudi in the 2020 Census, accounting for 43.3% (770 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 Rudi in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rudi a male name?
Yes, 61.3% of people registered as Rudi 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 Rudi still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rudi 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 Rudi 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 called Rudi?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.