Rodell
A German surname transferred to forename use, meaning "forest meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 535 living Americans carry the first name Rodell. It is a predominantly male name (98.7% of registrations). The average person named Rodell today is around 55 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rodell births was 1956 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rodell. 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.
People living today
535
~ 1 in 640,662 Americans
Peak year
1956
24 babies that year
Average age
55
years old
2012 SSA rank
#4,784
Tracked since 1912
Census
Rodell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 515 people with the first name Rodell, which placed it at #20,162 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
#20,162
National first-name rank
People counted
515
515 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
64.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rodell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rodell is Black at 64.9%. The next largest groups are White (16.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.3%). 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 Rodell 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 Rodell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American64.9% · 334
- White16.9% · 87
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.3% · 48
- Two or more races4.7% · 24
- Hispanic or Latino3.7% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 3
Gender
Gender distribution for Rodell
Rodell leans heavily male at 98.7% of total registrations, but 11 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Rodell as a male name
- Ranked #9,526 in 2012
- 8 male births in 2012
- Peak: 1956 (24 births)
Rodell as a female name
- Ranked #4,784 in 1935
- 5 female births in 1935
- Peak: 1929 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rodell leans strongly male. 467 people counted with this name were male (91.2%), compared with 45 female bearers (8.8%).
Popularity
Rodell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rodell from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 125 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
Rodell 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 Rodell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rodells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Florida, New York, California recorded the most babies named Rodell, while California, New York, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rodell
The given name Rodell is believed to have originated from the Old English language, with its roots dating back to the Anglo-Saxon era in England. The name is derived from the Old English words "rod," meaning a clearing or an open space, and "ell," which was a unit of measurement for length.
Historically, the name Rodell was predominantly found in areas of England, particularly in regions where Anglo-Saxon settlements were prevalent. It is possible that the name was initially used to refer to individuals who lived in or near clearings or open spaces, perhaps in reference to their place of residence or occupation.
While there are no significant historical references to the name Rodell in ancient texts or religious scriptures, some of the earliest recorded examples of the name can be found in medieval English records and documents from the 12th and 13th centuries.
One of the earliest known individuals with the name Rodell was Rodell of Exeter, a landowner and farmer who lived in the late 12th century in the county of Devon, England. Another notable figure was Sir Rodell Fitz-William, a knight who served under King Edward I of England in the late 13th century and participated in the Welsh Wars.
In the 15th century, there was Rodell Thornton, a merchant and trader who was active in the wool trade between England and the Low Countries. During the Tudor period, Rodell Askew, a religious reformer and Protestant martyr, gained fame for his defiance of the Catholic Church's teachings and was eventually burned at the stake in 1546.
Another prominent figure bearing the name Rodell was Captain Rodell Harrington, a British naval officer who served during the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century and was renowned for his bravery and leadership in several naval battles against the Dutch fleet.
Fast-forwarding to the 19th century, Rodell Wilkinson was a notable English architect who designed several prominent buildings in London, including the Royal Academy of Arts and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
People
Rodell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rodell 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
Rodell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rodell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 535 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rodell 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 640,662 US residents.
Is Rodell a common name?
We classify Rodell as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 818 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rodell most popular?
The single biggest year for Rodell was 1956, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rodell is about 55 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rodell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 515 people with the name Rodell, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #20,162 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 Rodell 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 Rodell?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rodell leans strongly male. 467 people counted with this name were male (91.2%), compared with 45 female bearers (8.8%). 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 Rodell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rodell is Black at 64.9%. The next largest groups are White (16.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.3%). 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 Rodell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rodell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.9% (334 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 Rodell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rodell a male name?
Yes, 98.7% of people registered as Rodell 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 Rodell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rodell 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 Rodell 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 common is the name Rodell?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.