Rage
Derived from an Old Norse word signifying violent and uncontrolled anger.
Name Census estimates that about 122 living Americans carry the first name Rage. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rage today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rage births was 2021 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rage. 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
122
~ 1 in 2,809,462 Americans
Peak year
2021
10 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2023 SSA rank
#10,532
Tracked since 1994
Census
Rage in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 161 people with the first name Rage, which placed it at #43,643 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
#43,643
National first-name rank
People counted
161
161 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
57.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rage
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rage is White at 57.8%. The next largest groups are Black (21.1%) and Hispanic (9.3%). 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 Rage 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 Rage at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White57.8% · 93
- Black or African American21.1% · 34
- Hispanic or Latino9.3% · 15
- Two or more races5.6% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.0% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 2
Popularity
Rage: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rage from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 53 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rage remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rage 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 Rage during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rage
The name Rage is derived from the Old English word "rage," which means "madness," "fury," or "violent anger." It has its roots in the Proto-Germanic word "regan," meaning "to rage" or "to be furious." The name is believed to have originated in the medieval period, around the 11th or 12th century, in England and other parts of the British Isles.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rage can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals that chronicled the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The Chronicle mentions a warrior named Rage who fought in the Battle of Hastings in 1066 against the Norman invaders led by William the Conqueror.
In the 13th century, the name Rage appears in the Domesday Book, a great survey of land and property ownership in England commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The Domesday Book lists a landowner named Rage who held lands in the county of Berkshire.
During the Renaissance period, the name Rage was associated with literary and artistic works that explored themes of passion, anger, and human emotions. One notable example is the character Rage in Edmund Spenser's epic poem "The Faerie Queene," published in 1590, which personified the concept of rage and fury.
In the 17th century, a famous English playwright named Rage Dyer (1586-1647) gained recognition for his satirical plays that often criticized the social and political issues of his time. His most well-known work is "The Widow's Tears," a tragicomedy published in 1623.
Another notable figure with the name Rage was Rage Merton (1688-1758), an English philosopher and theologian who wrote extensively on the nature of human emotions and the role of reason in controlling them. His book "The Passions of the Mind" (1742) explored the concept of rage and its impact on human behavior.
Throughout history, the name Rage has been associated with themes of passion, intensity, and fierce emotions, reflecting its origins in the Old English word for "madness" and "fury." While not a common name today, it has left a lasting impact in literature, philosophy, and the exploration of human emotions.
People
Rage + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rage 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
Rage: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rage?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 122 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rage 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 2,809,462 US residents.
Is Rage a common name?
We classify Rage as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 123 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rage most popular?
The single biggest year for Rage was 2021, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rage is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rage in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 161 people with the name Rage, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #43,643 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 Rage 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 Rage?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rage leans strongly male. 150 people counted with this name were male (89.8%), compared with 17 female bearers (10.2%). 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 Rage?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rage is White at 57.8%. The next largest groups are Black (21.1%) and Hispanic (9.3%). 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 Rage most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rage in the 2020 Census, accounting for 57.8% (93 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 Rage in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rage a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rage 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 Rage still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rage 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 Rage 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 have the name Rage?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Rage, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.