Rodolfo
Derived from the Germanic name Rudolf, meaning "famous wolf".
Name Census estimates that about 27,917 living Americans carry the first name Rodolfo. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rodolfo today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rodolfo births was 1981 (610 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rodolfo. 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
- • Although Rodolfo is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 83 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
28K
~ 1 in 12,278 Americans
Peak year
1981
610 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,459
Tracked since 1902
Census
Rodolfo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 50,873 people with the first name Rodolfo, which placed it at #891 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
#891
National first-name rank
People counted
51K
50,873 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
16.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
89.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rodolfo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rodolfo is Hispanic at 89.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (7.8%) and White (2.3%). 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 Rodolfo 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 Rodolfo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino89.4% · 45,489
- Asian and Pacific Islander7.8% · 3,967
- White2.3% · 1,147
- Black or African American0.2% · 119
- Two or more races0.2% · 101
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 50
Gender
Gender distribution for Rodolfo
Out of the 33,733 babies given the name Rodolfo since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Rodolfo as a male name
- Ranked #1,459 in 2024
- 124 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1981 (610 births)
Rodolfo as a female name
- Ranked #11,498 in 1993
- 7 female births in 1993
- Peak: 1980 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rodolfo appears almost entirely male. Of the 50,870 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Rodolfo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rodolfo from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 5,685 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rodolfo 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 Rodolfo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rodolfos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. Texas, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Rodolfo, while Utah, Pennsylvania, Mississippi recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 953 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rodolfo
The name Rodolfo is of Germanic origin, derived from the elements "rod" meaning fame and "wolf" meaning wolf. It dates back to the Middle Ages, around the 5th to 10th centuries AD, and was commonly used in various Germanic tribes and communities across Europe.
The earliest recorded use of the name Rodolfo can be found in the Frankish chronicles of the 6th century, where it was mentioned as the name of several Frankish nobles and warriors. One notable bearer of the name was Rodolfo, a Frankish count who fought alongside Charlemagne in the late 8th century.
In the 9th century, the name Rodolfo gained prominence among the ruling dynasties of several European kingdoms. Rudolf I of Burgundy, born in 859, was a prominent figure who ruled as the King of Upper Burgundy from 888 to 912. Another notable figure was Rudolf I of Germany, born in 1218, who was elected as the King of the Romans in 1273 and later became the Holy Roman Emperor.
During the Renaissance period, the name Rodolfo was popularized by several influential figures, including Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, an Italian humanist and scholar who lived from 1460 to 1522. Another notable bearer of the name was Rodolfo Lanciani, an Italian archaeologist and scholar who made significant contributions to the study of ancient Rome in the 19th century.
In the arts and literature, the name Rodolfo has been associated with several famous individuals. One of the most renowned was Rodolfo Valentino, the iconic Italian-American actor who became a cultural icon during the silent film era, born in 1895 and died in 1926. Another notable figure was Rodolfo Halffter, a Mexican composer and conductor, who lived from 1900 to 1987 and is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in Mexican classical music.
Other notable individuals with the name Rodolfo include Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta, a Mexican politician and activist who played a crucial role in the Mexican Revolution, born in 1882 and died in 1915. Rodolfo Neri Vela, a Mexican astronomer and mathematician, who lived from 1952 to 2020, made significant contributions to the study of celestial mechanics and the dynamics of small bodies in the Solar System.
People
Rodolfo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rodolfo 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
Rodolfo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rodolfo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 27,917 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rodolfo 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 12,278 US residents.
Is Rodolfo a common name?
We classify Rodolfo as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 33,733 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rodolfo most popular?
The single biggest year for Rodolfo was 1981, when 610 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rodolfo is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rodolfo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 50,873 people with the name Rodolfo, or 16.84 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #891 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 Rodolfo 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 Rodolfo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rodolfo appears almost entirely male. Of the 50,870 people counted with this name, 99.8% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Rodolfo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rodolfo is Hispanic at 89.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (7.8%) and White (2.3%). 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 Rodolfo most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Rodolfo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.4% (45,489 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 Rodolfo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rodolfo a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Rodolfo 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 Rodolfo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rodolfo 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 Rodolfo 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 Rodolfo?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Rodolfo on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.