Rochester
A place name referencing settlers from Rochester in England.
Name Census estimates that about 212 living Americans carry the first name Rochester. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rochester today is around 74 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rochester births was 1944 (22 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rochester. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Rochester is about 74 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Rochesters were born before 1962.
People living today
212
~ 1 in 1,616,766 Americans
Peak year
1944
22 babies that year
Average age
74
years old
1971 SSA rank
#4,809
Tracked since 1914
Census
Rochester in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 246 people with the first name Rochester, which placed it at #33,566 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
#33,566
National first-name rank
People counted
246
246 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
83.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rochester
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rochester is Black at 83.7%. The next largest groups are White (9.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (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 Rochester 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 Rochester at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American83.7% · 206
- White9.3% · 23
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 8
- Two or more races2.0% · 5
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 4
Popularity
Rochester: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rochester from the 1910s through to the 1970s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1940s, with 148 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1940s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rochester 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 Rochester during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rochesters live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia recorded the most babies named Rochester, while Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 7 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rochester
Rochester is an English place name derived from the Old English words "Hrocc" meaning "rock" and "cæster" meaning "city" or "fort". It originated as the name of a city in Kent, England, which was founded by the Romans and later became a significant settlement in Anglo-Saxon England.
The earliest recorded use of the name Rochester dates back to the 7th century, when it appeared in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and other historical documents. It was originally used as a surname, referring to someone who hailed from the city of Rochester.
Over time, Rochester also gained popularity as a given name, particularly among English and American families. One of the earliest recorded individuals with the first name Rochester was Rochester Rinehart, an American soldier who fought in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783).
Another notable bearer of the name was Rochester Lapham (1819-1888), an American engineer and surveyor who made significant contributions to the mapping of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes region.
In literature, the name Rochester is most famously associated with Edward Fairfax Rochester, the brooding romantic hero in Charlotte Brontë's novel "Jane Eyre" (1847). This fictional character likely helped to popularize the name in the 19th century.
Other historical figures with the first name Rochester include Rochester Thomas (1792-1853), an American politician and lawyer who served as a U.S. Representative from New York, and Rochester Ford (1830-1888), an American businessman and banker who co-founded the Ford Motor Company with his cousin, Henry Ford.
While the name Rochester is not as common today as it once was, it continues to be used occasionally in English-speaking countries, carrying with it a rich historical legacy and associations with the city of Rochester in England.
People
Rochester + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rochester 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
Rochester: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rochester?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 212 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rochester 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 1,616,766 US residents.
Is Rochester a common name?
We classify Rochester as "Very Rare". It ranks above 75% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 463 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rochester most popular?
The single biggest year for Rochester was 1944, when 22 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rochester is about 74 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rochester in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 246 people with the name Rochester, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #33,566 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 Rochester 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 Rochester?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rochester leans strongly male. 233 people counted with this name were male (95.1%), compared with 12 female bearers (4.9%). 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 Rochester?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rochester is Black at 83.7%. The next largest groups are White (9.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (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 Rochester most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rochester in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.7% (206 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 Rochester in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rochester a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rochester 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 Rochester still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rochester 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 Rochester 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 Rochester?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Rochester on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.