Rolf
A masculine Germanic name meaning "wolf counsel" or "famous wolf".
Name Census estimates that about 1,815 living Americans carry the first name Rolf. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rolf today is around 64 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rolf births was 1960 (97 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rolf. 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 Rolf with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 188,845 Americans
Peak year
1960
97 babies that year
Average age
64
years old
2024 SSA rank
#12,013
Tracked since 1912
Census
Rolf in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,379 people with the first name Rolf, which placed it at #5,166 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
#5,166
National first-name rank
People counted
3.4K
3,379 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
93.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rolf
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rolf is White at 93.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.4%) and Black (1.9%). 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 Rolf 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 Rolf at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White93.0% · 3,144
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 80
- Black or African American1.9% · 63
- Two or more races1.6% · 55
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 30
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 7
Popularity
Rolf: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rolf from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 662 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rolf 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 Rolf during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rolfs live
The SSA's state-level files cover 12 states and territories. New York, Minnesota, California recorded the most babies named Rolf, while Oregon, North Dakota, New Jersey recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 95 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rolf
The name Rolf has its origins in the Germanic languages and dates back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old Norse name Rolfr, which itself comes from the elements rudol meaning "famous" and folk meaning "people" or "army". The name can be translated to mean "famous among the people" or "famous warrior".
In Old Norse literature, the name appears in various forms such as Hrólfr, Hrólf, and Rolff. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Rolf Ganger, a Norwegian Viking who became the first Duke of Normandy in the 10th century after leading his people to settle in northwestern France. He is also known as Rollo or Rollon in French sources.
Another notable historical figure with the name Rolf was Rolf Krake, a legendary Danish king who is the central figure in the Old Norse Skjöldunga saga. He is said to have lived in the 6th century and is portrayed as a great warrior and leader.
In the 11th century, Rolf was the name of a Norwegian nobleman and landowner who is mentioned in the Heimskringla, a collection of sagas about the Norwegian kings. This Rolf was an ally of King Harald Hardrada and participated in military campaigns in England.
During the Middle Ages, the name Rolf was also used in various German-speaking regions, particularly in areas with Norse influence or settlement. One example is Rolf von Zähringen, a 12th-century German nobleman who founded the city of Freiburg im Breisgau in present-day Germany.
In more recent times, notable bearers of the name Rolf include Rolf Harris (1930-2022), an Australian entertainer and artist; Rolf Benirschke (born 1954), an American football player; and Rolf Bucholz (born 1937), a German actor and voice artist.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Rolf
People
Rolf + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rolf 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
Rolf: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rolf?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,815 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rolf 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 188,845 US residents.
Is Rolf a common name?
We classify Rolf as "Rare". It ranks above 93.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,097 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rolf most popular?
The single biggest year for Rolf was 1960, when 97 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rolf is about 64 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rolf in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,379 people with the name Rolf, or 1.12 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,166 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 Rolf 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 Rolf?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rolf appears almost entirely male. Of the 3,380 people counted with this name, 99.9% 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 Rolf?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rolf is White at 93.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (2.4%) and Black (1.9%). 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 Rolf most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rolf in the 2020 Census, accounting for 93.0% (3,144 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 Rolf in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rolf a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rolf 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 Rolf still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rolf 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 Rolf 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 Rolf as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Rolf on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.