Roanna
Roanna is a feminine name derived from the Scottish surname Rowan, meaning "little red one".
Name Census estimates that about 336 living Americans carry the first name Roanna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Roanna today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Roanna births was 1951 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Roanna. 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 Roanna with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
336
~ 1 in 1,020,102 Americans
Peak year
1951
17 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
2010 SSA rank
#19,255
Tracked since 1917
Census
Roanna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 491 people with the first name Roanna, which placed it at #20,884 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
#20,884
National first-name rank
People counted
491
491 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
56.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Roanna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roanna is White at 56.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (13.8%) and Black (12.2%). 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 Roanna 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 Roanna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White56.0% · 275
- Asian and Pacific Islander13.8% · 68
- Black or African American12.2% · 60
- Hispanic or Latino11.6% · 57
- American Indian and Alaska Native3.3% · 16
- Two or more races3.1% · 15
Popularity
Roanna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Roanna from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 116 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Roanna 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 Roanna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Roannas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Roanna
The name Roanna is believed to have its origins in the Scottish Gaelic language. It is a feminine form of the name Ronan, which means "little seal" or "little wanderer." The name can be traced back to the 16th century in Scotland.
In the 17th century, the name Roanna appeared in various Scottish historical records and documents. One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name was in a parish register from the village of Kilchrenan in Argyll, Scotland, in 1642, where a woman named Roanna MacLeod was listed.
The name Roanna gained some popularity in Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries. One notable bearer of the name was Roanna Gilchrist (1768-1847), a Scottish poet and author from Ayrshire. Her collection of poems, "The Rose and the Thistle," published in 1810, received critical acclaim during her lifetime.
As the Scottish diaspora spread across the world, the name Roanna also made its way to other countries. In the late 19th century, a woman named Roanna McIlvain (1858-1934) became a prominent figure in the women's suffrage movement in the United States. She served as the president of the Missouri Women's Suffrage Association from 1910 to 1919.
Another notable bearer of the name was Roanna Berdenia Gye (1889-1965), an Australian painter and artist known for her landscape and still life works. Her paintings are part of the collections of several major art galleries in Australia.
In the 20th century, Roanna Villanueva (1922-2008) was a renowned Filipino actress and singer. She appeared in numerous films and stage productions during the Golden Age of Philippine cinema and is considered one of the country's most influential and iconic performers.
While the name Roanna has remained relatively uncommon compared to other names, it has been carried by several notable individuals throughout history, primarily from Scotland and countries with Scottish heritage. The name's Scottish Gaelic roots and association with nature and wanderlust have contributed to its enduring charm and appeal.
People
Roanna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Roanna 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
Roanna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Roanna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 336 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Roanna 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 1,020,102 US residents.
Is Roanna a common name?
We classify Roanna as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 440 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Roanna most popular?
The single biggest year for Roanna was 1951, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Roanna is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Roanna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 491 people with the name Roanna, or 0.16 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,884 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 Roanna 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 Roanna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Roanna appears almost entirely female. Of the 487 people counted with this name, 100.0% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Roanna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roanna is White at 56.0%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (13.8%) and Black (12.2%). 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 Roanna most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Roanna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 56.0% (275 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 Roanna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Roanna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Roanna in the SSA data are female. 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 Roanna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Roanna 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 Roanna 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 Roanna?
You can see how many people share the name Roanna on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.