Romeo
A masculine name of Italian origin derived from the Italian name Romio representing the diminutive of a Germanic name.
Name Census estimates that about 22,582 living Americans carry the first name Romeo. It sits at #283 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Romeo today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Romeo births was 2024 (1,188 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Romeo. 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 Romeo with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
23K
~ 1 in 15,178 Americans
Peak year
2024
1,188 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#283
Tracked since 1880
Census
Romeo in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 22,788 people with the first name Romeo, which placed it at #1,476 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
#1,476
National first-name rank
People counted
23K
22,788 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
7.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
49.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Romeo
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Romeo is Hispanic at 49.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (26.1%) and Black (10.6%). 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 Romeo 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 Romeo at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino49.4% · 11,247
- Asian and Pacific Islander26.1% · 5,946
- Black or African American10.6% · 2,413
- White9.9% · 2,263
- Two or more races3.4% · 767
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 152
Popularity
Romeo: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Romeo from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 9,227 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Romeo remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Romeo 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 Romeo during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Romeos live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Romeo, while Vermont, South Dakota, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 465 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Romeo
The name Romeo has its origins in the Italian language and culture, dating back to the Renaissance period in the 15th and 16th centuries. It is believed to be derived from the Latin name "Romeus," which itself has roots in the word "Romanus," meaning "Roman."
One of the earliest and most famous references to the name Romeo is in William Shakespeare's tragic play "Romeo and Juliet," written around 1595. In the play, Romeo Montague is the male protagonist and one of the two star-crossed lovers. The play's enduring popularity has contributed significantly to the widespread recognition and popularity of the name.
In the 12th century, a French monk named Romee wrote a popular work called "Le Roman de la Rose" (The Romance of the Rose), which is considered one of the most influential literary works of the Middle Ages. While it is not clear if the monk's name was directly related to the name Romeo, it is one of the earliest recorded instances of a similar name.
One of the earliest recorded individuals named Romeo was Romeo di Piero, an Italian painter and architect who lived from around 1426 to 1464. He was known for his work on the Palazzo Vecchio and other notable buildings in Florence.
Another notable individual with the name Romeo was Romeo Castellucci, an Italian playwright and theatre director born in 1960. He is known for his avant-garde and experimental works, which often explore dark and controversial themes.
In the realm of music, Romeo Santos, a American singer and songwriter of Dominican descent, has achieved great success in the Latin music industry. He was born in 1981 and is best known for his work with the bachata group Aventura and his solo career.
Romeo Luckhoo, a Guyanese writer and politician, was born in 1923 and played a significant role in the literary and political spheres of his country. He served as a member of the Parliament of Guyana and authored several books, including the novel "The Sacrifice."
Finally, Romeo Crennel, an American football coach, was born in 1947 and has had a long and successful career in the National Football League (NFL). He has served as the head coach for the Cleveland Browns and the Kansas City Chiefs, as well as holding various coaching positions with other teams.
People
Romeo + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Romeo 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
Romeo: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Romeo?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 22,582 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Romeo 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 15,178 US residents.
Is Romeo a common name?
We classify Romeo as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 25,728 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Romeo most popular?
The single biggest year for Romeo was 2024, when 1,188 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Romeo is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Romeo in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 22,788 people with the name Romeo, or 7.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,476 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 Romeo 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 Romeo?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Romeo appears almost entirely male. Of the 22,794 people counted with this name, 99.6% 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 Romeo?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Romeo is Hispanic at 49.4%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (26.1%) and Black (10.6%). 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 Romeo most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Romeo in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.4% (11,247 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 Romeo in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Romeo a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Romeo 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 Romeo still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Romeo 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 Romeo 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 Romeo?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.