Ronelle
A given name derived from the German language meaning "counsel defender".
Name Census estimates that about 551 living Americans carry the first name Ronelle. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.5% of registrations being female. The average person named Ronelle today is around 52 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ronelle births was 1967 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ronelle. 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
551
~ 1 in 622,059 Americans
Peak year
1967
24 babies that year
Average age
52
years old
2008 SSA rank
#12,263
Tracked since 1941
Census
Ronelle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 749 people with the first name Ronelle, which placed it at #15,378 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
#15,378
National first-name rank
People counted
749
749 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
50.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ronelle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ronelle is White at 50.7%. The next largest groups are Black (34.0%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Ronelle 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 Ronelle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White50.7% · 380
- Black or African American34.0% · 255
- Two or more races5.1% · 38
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.5% · 34
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.9% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 20
Gender
Gender distribution for Ronelle
Ronelle leans heavily female at 89.5% of total registrations, but 69 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ronelle as a male name
- Ranked #12,263 in 2008
- 6 male births in 2008
- Peak: 1978 (8 births)
Ronelle as a female name
- Ranked #19,616 in 2009
- 5 female births in 2009
- Peak: 1967 (24 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ronelle leans strongly female. 612 people counted with this name were female (81.9%), compared with 135 male bearers (18.1%).
Popularity
Ronelle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ronelle from the 1940s through to the 2000s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 153 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
Ronelle 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 Ronelle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ronelles live
Origin
Meaning and history of Ronelle
The given name Ronelle is a variant of the French feminine name Renée, which itself is derived from the Late Latin name Renata, meaning "reborn" or "born again." The name Renata can be traced back to the 5th century AD.
The name Ronelle likely emerged as a variant spelling in the late medieval period, possibly influenced by the similar-sounding French names Ronnelle or Ronelle. These names may have their roots in the Gallo-Romance languages spoken in parts of what is now France and Belgium.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ronelle dates back to the 16th century, when it appears in historical records from the region of Picardy in northern France. In these records, a woman named Ronelle de Bouillancourt is mentioned as a landowner in the year 1572.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Ronelle. One of the earliest was Ronelle de Montfort, a French noblewoman who lived in the 13th century and was known for her involvement in the Crusades. Another was Ronelle de Valois, a member of the French royal family who lived in the 15th century.
In the 17th century, Ronelle de Chabannes was a French aristocrat and courtier who served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie de' Medici. Around the same time, Ronelle d'Artagnan was a French military officer who fought in the Thirty Years' War and is said to have been the inspiration for the character of the same name in Alexandre Dumas's novel "The Three Musketeers."
In the 19th century, Ronelle Duval was a French painter and illustrator who gained recognition for her portraits and genre scenes depicting everyday life in Paris.
While the name Ronelle has been used throughout history, it has always been relatively uncommon compared to more popular names of the time. Its origins, however, can be traced back to the Late Latin name Renata, which has its roots in the idea of rebirth or renewal.
People
Ronelle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ronelle 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
Ronelle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ronelle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 551 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ronelle 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 622,059 US residents.
Is Ronelle a common name?
We classify Ronelle as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 657 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ronelle most popular?
The single biggest year for Ronelle was 1967, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ronelle is about 52 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ronelle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 749 people with the name Ronelle, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,378 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 Ronelle 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 Ronelle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ronelle leans strongly female. 612 people counted with this name were female (81.9%), compared with 135 male bearers (18.1%). 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 Ronelle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ronelle is White at 50.7%. The next largest groups are Black (34.0%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Ronelle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ronelle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 50.7% (380 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 Ronelle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ronelle a female name?
Yes, 89.5% of people registered as Ronelle 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 Ronelle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ronelle 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 Ronelle 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 Americans are named Ronelle?
Want to know how many people share the name Ronelle? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.