Find out how popular the last name Rolph is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Rolph.

Rolph, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Rolph surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Rolph in America

Rolph is the 19671st most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Rolph surname appeared 1,370 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 people would have the surname Rolph.

We can also compare 2010 data for Rolph to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Rolph

The surname Rolph is of Anglo-Saxon origin, deriving from the Old English personal name Rodwulf or Rodwolf. It is composed of the elements "rod" meaning "fame" and "wulf" meaning "wolf." The name was first found in Kent, a county in southeast England.

One of the earliest recorded references to the name can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which mentions a landholder named Rodulf in Kent. This suggests that the name was already well-established in the region by the late 11th century.

Over the centuries, the name has undergone various spelling variations, including Rolf, Rolfe, Rolff, and Roalf, reflecting regional dialects and scribal errors in record-keeping. Some of the earliest recorded instances of these variations include John Rolff mentioned in the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex in 1296 and William Rolf listed in the Assize Rolls of Staffordshire in 1344.

Notable individuals bearing the surname Rolph include Sir Samuel Rolph (1622-1702), an English merchant and politician who served as Lord Mayor of London in 1683. Another prominent figure was John Rolph (1793-1870), a Canadian physician, politician, and one of the leaders of the Rebellion of 1837 in Upper Canada.

Other historical figures with the surname Rolph include Sir Thomas Rolph (1631-1689), an English politician and Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire in the late 17th century, and Charles Rolph (1804-1884), a Canadian businessman and politician who served as the third Mayor of Toronto from 1845 to 1846.

The surname Rolph has also been associated with several place names, such as Rolph, a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, and Rolph Creek, a watercourse in Ontario, Canada, named after the Rolph family who settled in the area in the early 19th century.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Rolph

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Rolph.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Rolph was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Rolph has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Rolph was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Rolph, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!