Ragnar
From Old Norse origins, meaning "counsel" or "judgment" of God.
Name Census estimates that about 699 living Americans carry the first name Ragnar. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ragnar today is around 7 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ragnar births was 2023 (96 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ragnar. 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 Ragnar with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
699
~ 1 in 490,350 Americans
Peak year
2023
96 babies that year
Average age
7
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,272
Tracked since 1915
Census
Ragnar in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 482 people with the first name Ragnar, which placed it at #21,162 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
#21,162
National first-name rank
People counted
482
482 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ragnar
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ragnar is White at 71.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.4%) and Two or More Races (6.6%). 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 Ragnar 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 Ragnar at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.2% · 343
- Hispanic or Latino17.4% · 84
- Two or more races6.6% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 17
- Black or African American1.2% · 6
Popularity
Ragnar: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ragnar from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 402 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ragnar 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 Ragnar during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ragnars live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Ragnar, while Oregon, Minnesota, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 17 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ragnar
The name Ragnar has its origins in Old Norse, the language spoken by the Vikings and Scandinavian people during the Viking Age. It is derived from the Old Norse elements "ragn" meaning "counsel" or "advice" and "arr" meaning "warrior" or "soldier". Together, the name Ragnar can be interpreted to mean "counsel warrior" or "wise warrior".
The name Ragnar was particularly popular among the Vikings and Norse people who inhabited Scandinavia and parts of northern Europe between the 8th and 11th centuries. It is believed to have been used as early as the 9th century, as evidenced by its appearance in ancient Norse sagas and historical records from that time.
One of the earliest and most famous bearers of the name was Ragnar Lodbrok, a legendary Viking king and hero who is said to have lived in the 9th century. According to Norse legends and sagas, Ragnar was a fearsome warrior and skilled sailor who led many raids and conquests across Europe and parts of England. His exploits and adventures were widely chronicled in ancient Norse literature and folklore.
Another notable historical figure with the name Ragnar was Ragnar Fritzner (1841-1924), a Norwegian philologist and lexicographer who is best known for his work on the Old Norse dictionary "Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog".
In more recent history, Ragnar Granit (1900-1991) was a Finnish neuroscientist and Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the physiological processes of the retina.
Ragnar Sohlman (1870-1948) was a Swedish inventor and industrialist who is credited with developing the first modern safety match and founding the Swedish match company that still bears his name.
Ragnar Frisch (1895-1973) was a Norwegian economist and one of the first recipients of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work on econometrics and the development of the Frisch Consumption Multiplier.
While the name Ragnar may not be as common today as it once was, it still holds a significant place in Scandinavian and Norse history and culture, serving as a reminder of the Vikings' rich heritage and the enduring influence of Old Norse language and tradition.
People
Ragnar + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ragnar 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
Ragnar: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ragnar?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 699 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ragnar 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 490,350 US residents.
Is Ragnar a common name?
We classify Ragnar as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 733 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ragnar most popular?
The single biggest year for Ragnar was 2023, when 96 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ragnar is about 7 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ragnar in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 482 people with the name Ragnar, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #21,162 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 Ragnar 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 Ragnar?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ragnar appears almost entirely male. Of the 475 people counted with this name, 100.0% 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 Ragnar?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ragnar is White at 71.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (17.4%) and Two or More Races (6.6%). 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 Ragnar most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ragnar in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.2% (343 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 Ragnar in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ragnar a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ragnar 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 Ragnar still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ragnar 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 Ragnar 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 Ragnar?
Find out how many people have the name Ragnar on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.