Ronell
A masculine name of French origin, perhaps derived from Ronel.
Name Census estimates that about 1,755 living Americans carry the first name Ronell. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Ronell today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ronell births was 1976 (61 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ronell. 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 Ronell with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.8K
~ 1 in 195,302 Americans
Peak year
1976
61 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2023 SSA rank
#9,566
Tracked since 1934
Census
Ronell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,402 people with the first name Ronell, which placed it at #9,776 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
#9,776
National first-name rank
People counted
1.4K
1,402 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
68.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ronell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ronell is Black at 68.6%. The next largest groups are White (16.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.3%). 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 Ronell 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 Ronell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American68.6% · 962
- White16.5% · 231
- Asian and Pacific Islander5.3% · 74
- Hispanic or Latino5.1% · 72
- Two or more races4.0% · 56
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Ronell
Ronell leans heavily male at 83.2% of total registrations, but 326 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ronell as a male name
- Ranked #9,566 in 2023
- 8 male births in 2023
- Peak: 1976 (48 births)
Ronell as a female name
- Ranked #16,336 in 1999
- 5 female births in 1999
- Peak: 1968 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ronell on both sides of the split. Of the 1,408 people counted with this name, 1,106 were male (78.6%) and 302 were female (21.4%).
Popularity
Ronell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ronell from the 1930s through to the 2020s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 426 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ronell 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 Ronell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ronells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. New York, California, Illinois recorded the most babies named Ronell, while Virginia, Michigan, Ohio recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 33 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ronell
The name Ronell is believed to have its origins in the Germanic languages, specifically the Old Norse and Old Swedish tongues. It is thought to be a compound name formed from the elements "rōn" meaning "fame" or "praise" and "ell" signifying "strength" or "vigor." This suggests that the name Ronell may have initially conveyed a sense of "renowned strength" or "celebrated vigor."
In its earliest recorded uses, the name Ronell appeared in ancient Norse sagas and chronicles, often borne by formidable warriors or renowned leaders. One of the earliest documented instances is that of Ronell Eriksson, a Viking chieftain who led a fearsome band of raiders in the 9th century AD, pillaging settlements along the coasts of present-day Norway and Scotland.
The name also holds significance in the annals of medieval Scandinavian history. Ronell Magnusson was a prominent Norwegian nobleman and military commander who fought alongside King Haakon IV during the Swedish-Norwegian War of the late 13th century. His valor and strategic acumen earned him a place in the sagas of the time.
In the 15th century, Ronell Thorvaldsson was a renowned Icelandic skald, or court poet, whose intricate verse and mastery of the poetic form were celebrated throughout the Norse lands. His works, preserved in the Icelandic sagas, offer a glimpse into the rich cultural tapestry of the Viking era.
As the name spread beyond its Scandinavian roots, it found its way into other European cultures. In the 16th century, Ronell de Vries was a Dutch merchant and explorer who ventured to the East Indies, contributing to the expansion of the Dutch East India Company's trade routes and establishing settlements in present-day Indonesia.
Ronell Garibaldi, an Italian soldier and statesman born in 1807, played a pivotal role in the unification of Italy under the House of Savoy, serving as a close advisor to King Victor Emmanuel II and advocating for a unified Italian state.
These are but a few examples of the storied history and diverse cultural influences associated with the name Ronell, a name that has echoed through the ages, borne by warriors, poets, explorers, and statesmen alike.
People
Ronell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ronell 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
Ronell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ronell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,755 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ronell 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 195,302 US residents.
Is Ronell a common name?
We classify Ronell as "Rare". It ranks above 93.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,941 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ronell most popular?
The single biggest year for Ronell was 1976, when 61 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ronell is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ronell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,402 people with the name Ronell, or 0.46 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,776 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 Ronell 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 Ronell?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ronell on both sides of the split. Of the 1,408 people counted with this name, 1,106 were male (78.6%) and 302 were female (21.4%). 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 Ronell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ronell is Black at 68.6%. The next largest groups are White (16.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (5.3%). 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 Ronell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ronell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.6% (962 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 Ronell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ronell a male name?
Yes, 83.2% of people registered as Ronell 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 Ronell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ronell 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 Ronell 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 the name Ronell?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.