Roch
Form of Germanic name derived from a term meaning "rest" or "repose".
Name Census estimates that about 201 living Americans carry the first name Roch. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Roch today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Roch births was 1957 (28 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Roch. 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 Roch with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
201
~ 1 in 1,705,245 Americans
Peak year
1957
28 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2024 SSA rank
#10,660
Tracked since 1927
Census
Roch in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 364 people with the first name Roch, which placed it at #25,851 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
#25,851
National first-name rank
People counted
364
364 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Roch
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roch is White at 87.6%. The next largest groups are Black (4.7%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Roch 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 Roch at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.6% · 319
- Black or African American4.7% · 17
- Hispanic or Latino4.1% · 15
- Two or more races2.5% · 9
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Roch: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Roch from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 124 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Roch 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 Roch 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 Roch
The name Roch has its origins in the Late Latin and Old French language and can be traced back to the 4th century AD. It is derived from the Germanic name Hroch, which means "famous" or "renowned". The name was popularized in France during the Middle Ages and was initially used as a surname.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Roch is in reference to Saint Roch, a Catholic saint who lived in the 14th century. He was born in Montpellier, France, in 1295 and is known for his work in caring for victims of the Black Death plague. His feast day is celebrated on August 16th in the Catholic Church.
Another notable figure bearing the name Roch was Roch Carrier, a Canadian author, and playwright born in 1937. He is best known for his novel "La Guerre, Yes Sir!" and his contributions to Canadian literature.
In the field of music, Roch Voisine is a renowned Canadian singer and songwriter born in 1963. He has released several successful albums and has won numerous awards, including several Félix Awards and a Juno Award.
Roch Thériault was a Canadian politician and lawyer who served as the 30th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec from 1976 to 1984. He played a significant role in Quebec's political landscape during a time of constitutional debates and the sovereignty movement.
Roch Kubatko is a contemporary American mathematician and computer scientist known for his contributions to the field of computational biology. He has developed algorithms and software tools for phylogenetic analysis, which are widely used in evolutionary studies.
While the name Roch was more commonly used in the past, particularly in French-speaking regions, it has remained a recognizable name throughout history, often associated with notable figures in various fields, including religion, literature, music, politics, and academia.
People
Roch + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Roch 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
Roch: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Roch?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 201 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Roch 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 1,705,245 US residents.
Is Roch a common name?
We classify Roch as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 251 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Roch most popular?
The single biggest year for Roch was 1957, when 28 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Roch is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Roch in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 364 people with the name Roch, or 0.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #25,851 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 Roch 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 Roch?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Roch leans strongly male. 362 people counted with this name were male (97.8%), compared with 8 female bearers (2.2%). 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 Roch?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roch is White at 87.6%. The next largest groups are Black (4.7%) and Hispanic (4.1%). 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 Roch most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Roch in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.6% (319 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 Roch in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Roch a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Roch 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 Roch still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Roch 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 Roch 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 share the name Roch?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.