Rasmus
A Danish masculine name derived from a Scandinavian word meaning "bundle of branches".
Name Census estimates that about 128 living Americans carry the first name Rasmus. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rasmus today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rasmus births was 2024 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rasmus. 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 Rasmus with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
128
~ 1 in 2,677,768 Americans
Peak year
2024
18 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,380
Tracked since 1888
Census
Rasmus in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 299 people with the first name Rasmus, which placed it at #29,541 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
#29,541
National first-name rank
People counted
299
299 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rasmus
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rasmus is White at 86.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Black (3.3%). 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 Rasmus 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 Rasmus at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.3% · 258
- Two or more races5.0% · 15
- Black or African American3.3% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino3.0% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 2
Popularity
Rasmus: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rasmus from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 68 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rasmus remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rasmus 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 Rasmus 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 Rasmus
The name Rasmus is a Scandinavian name of Danish and Swedish origin, derived from the Old Norse name Rasmus, which itself was a contracted form of the name Rasmund. The name Rasmund is composed of the Old Norse elements "ras" meaning "stem" or "twig" and "mundr" meaning "protection."
This name dates back to the Viking Age, around the 8th to 11th centuries in Scandinavia. It was initially used as a masculine given name among the Norse peoples of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. The earliest recorded examples of the name can be found in ancient Norse sagas and historical records from this period.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Rasmus was Rasmus Knudsen, a Danish historian and clergyman who lived from 1501 to 1573. He is known for his work "Chronica Regni Daniae" (Chronicle of the Kingdom of Denmark), which documented the history of Denmark from the reign of King Valdemar II to the death of King Hans in 1513.
Another notable bearer of the name was Rasmus Rask, a Danish linguist and philologist who lived from 1787 to 1832. He made significant contributions to the study of comparative linguistics and was instrumental in deciphering the Old Persian cuneiform script.
In the 16th century, Rasmus Lætus (also known as Rasmus Glad) was a Danish humanist scholar and educator who lived from 1496 to 1561. He played a crucial role in the establishment of the University of Copenhagen and served as its first rector.
The name Rasmus also appears in literature, such as in the works of the famous Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. His story "The Tiny Fiddler" features a character named Rasmus who is a wandering musician.
Another historical figure with the name Rasmus was Rasmus Malling-Hansen, a Danish reverend and inventor who lived from 1835 to 1890. He is credited with inventing the Hansen Writing Ball, which is considered one of the earliest predecessors of the modern typewriter.
While the name Rasmus has its origins in Scandinavia, it has been used in various parts of the world, particularly in regions with strong Danish or Swedish cultural influences. However, its usage has been most prevalent in Denmark, Sweden, and other Scandinavian countries, where it has maintained its historical significance and cultural relevance over the centuries.
People
Rasmus + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rasmus 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
Rasmus: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rasmus?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 128 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rasmus 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 2,677,768 US residents.
Is Rasmus a common name?
We classify Rasmus as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 134 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rasmus most popular?
The single biggest year for Rasmus was 2024, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rasmus is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rasmus in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 299 people with the name Rasmus, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #29,541 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 Rasmus 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 Rasmus?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rasmus leans strongly male. 295 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 5 female bearers (1.7%). 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 Rasmus?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rasmus is White at 86.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.0%) and Black (3.3%). 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 Rasmus most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rasmus in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.3% (258 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 Rasmus in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rasmus a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rasmus 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 Rasmus still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rasmus 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 Rasmus 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 Americans are named Rasmus?
See how many people share the name Rasmus on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.