Roderica
Of Latin origin, meaning "powerful ruler" or "famous ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 129 living Americans carry the first name Roderica. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Roderica today is around 36 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Roderica births was 1990 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Roderica. 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
129
~ 1 in 2,657,010 Americans
Peak year
1990
15 babies that year
Average age
36
years old
1999 SSA rank
#12,378
Tracked since 1973
Census
Roderica in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 184 people with the first name Roderica, which placed it at #40,443 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
#40,443
National first-name rank
People counted
184
184 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
77.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Roderica
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roderica is Black at 77.7%. The next largest groups are White (6.0%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Roderica 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 Roderica at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American77.7% · 143
- White6.0% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino4.3% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native4.3% · 8
- Two or more races4.3% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 6
Popularity
Roderica: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Roderica from the 1970s through to the 1990s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 82 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Roderica 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 Roderica during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rodericas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Roderica
The name Roderica has its origins in the Late Latin language, derived from the Germanic root "rod" or "hrod," which means "fame" or "renown." It first appeared in the Medieval period, around the 5th to 9th centuries CE, when the Germanic tribes migrated and settled across various regions of Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Roderica can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Cavensis, a collection of medieval documents from the Cava de' Tirreni monastery in southern Italy, dating back to the 9th century. The name was likely brought to the region by the Lombards, a Germanic tribe that ruled parts of Italy during the 6th to 8th centuries.
In the 12th century, a Spanish noblewoman named Roderica Díaz de Vivar was mentioned in the epic poem El Cantar de Mio Cid. She was the daughter of the renowned Castilian knight El Cid Campeador and played a significant role in the poem's events.
During the 13th century, Roderica of Polheim, a German noblewoman, was recorded as the Abbess of the Monasterium Campililiense, a Benedictine monastery in present-day Austria, from 1263 to 1275.
In the 15th century, Roderica Borgia, a member of the powerful Borgia family in Renaissance Italy, was born in 1480. She was the daughter of Pope Alexander VI and became a prominent figure in the Vatican court.
Another notable figure was Roderica Mendes, a Portuguese explorer and navigator who accompanied Ferdinand Magellan on his famous voyage around the world in the early 16th century. She was one of the few women on the expedition and played a crucial role in the success of the voyage.
While the name Roderica has its roots in Late Latin and Germanic origins, it was also adopted and used in various other cultures and regions throughout history, albeit with slight variations in spelling and pronunciation.
People
Roderica + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Roderica 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
Roderica: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Roderica?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 129 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Roderica 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 2,657,010 US residents.
Is Roderica a common name?
We classify Roderica as "Very Rare". It ranks above 68.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 135 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Roderica most popular?
The single biggest year for Roderica was 1990, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Roderica is about 36 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Roderica in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 184 people with the name Roderica, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #40,443 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 Roderica 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 Roderica?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Roderica leans strongly female. 175 people counted with this name were female (96.7%), compared with 6 male bearers (3.3%). 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 Roderica?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roderica is Black at 77.7%. The next largest groups are White (6.0%) and Hispanic (4.3%). 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 Roderica most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Roderica in the 2020 Census, accounting for 77.7% (143 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 Roderica in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Roderica a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Roderica 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 Roderica still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Roderica 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 Roderica 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 have Roderica as a first name?
Find out how many people have the name Roderica on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.