Ronnie
A masculine diminutive of Ronald, from Old Norse meaning "ruler's counsellor".
Name Census estimates that about 142,171 living Americans carry the first name Ronnie. It is a predominantly male name (95.8% of registrations). The average person named Ronnie today is around 61 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ronnie births was 1947 (6,381 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ronnie. 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 Ronnie with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Ronnie is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 8,079 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Ronnie have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
142K
~ 1 in 2,411 Americans
Peak year
1947
6,381 babies that year
Average age
61
years old
2024 SSA rank
#995
Tracked since 1902
Census
Ronnie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 105,398 people with the first name Ronnie, which placed it at #532 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
#532
National first-name rank
People counted
105K
105,398 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
34.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
63.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ronnie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ronnie is White at 63.7%. The next largest groups are Black (23.5%) and Hispanic (6.4%). 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 Ronnie 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 Ronnie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White63.7% · 67,155
- Black or African American23.5% · 24,735
- Hispanic or Latino6.4% · 6,795
- Two or more races3.1% · 3,241
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.1% · 2,214
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 1,258
Gender
Gender distribution for Ronnie
Ronnie leans heavily male at 95.8% of total registrations, but 8,079 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ronnie as a male name
- Ranked #995 in 2024
- 226 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (6,109 births)
Ronnie as a female name
- Ranked #2,292 in 2024
- 81 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1947 (272 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ronnie leans strongly male. 100,005 people counted with this name were male (94.9%), compared with 5,396 female bearers (5.1%).
Popularity
Ronnie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ronnie from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 13 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 52,876 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ronnie 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 Ronnie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ronnies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Ronnie, while New Hampshire, Vermont, Alaska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,600 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ronnie
The name Ronnie is a diminutive form of the name Ronald, which is derived from the Old Norse name Rögnvaldr. Rögnvaldr is composed of two elements: the Old Norse word "rǫgn," meaning "counsel" or "decision," and the Old Norse word "valdr," meaning "ruler" or "wielder."
The name Rögnvaldr was first recorded in the 9th century AD and was borne by several Scandinavian rulers and noblemen. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Rögnvaldr, Earl of Møre, who lived in Norway in the late 9th century.
As the Vikings explored and settled in various parts of Europe, the name Rögnvaldr spread to other regions. In the 11th century, it appeared in the Orkneyinga Saga, a historical narrative about the rulers of the Orkney Islands, off the northern coast of Scotland.
The name Ronald, the Anglicized form of Rögnvaldr, became popular in English-speaking countries during the Middle Ages. One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Ronald is from the 12th century, when it appeared in the Pipe Rolls of Northumberland, England.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Ronnie, including:
1. Ronnie Wood (born 1947), British rock musician and member of the Rolling Stones.
2. Ronnie Corbett (1930-2016), British comedian and actor, best known for the BBC sketch show "The Two Ronnies."
3. Ronnie Barker (1929-2005), British actor and comedian, also known for "The Two Ronnies."
4. Ronnie Biggs (1929-2013), British criminal, infamous for his role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963.
5. Ronnie Spector (born 1943), American singer and leader of the 1960s girl group the Ronettes.
Although the name Ronnie is a diminutive form, it has become a name in its own right, particularly popular in English-speaking countries during the 20th century.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ronnie
People
Ronnie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ronnie 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
Ronnie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ronnie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 142,171 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ronnie 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 2,411 US residents.
Is Ronnie a common name?
We classify Ronnie as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 190,797 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ronnie most popular?
The single biggest year for Ronnie was 1947, when 6,381 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ronnie is about 61 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ronnie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 105,398 people with the name Ronnie, or 34.90 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #532 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 Ronnie 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 Ronnie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ronnie leans strongly male. 100,005 people counted with this name were male (94.9%), compared with 5,396 female bearers (5.1%). 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 Ronnie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ronnie is White at 63.7%. The next largest groups are Black (23.5%) and Hispanic (6.4%). 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 Ronnie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ronnie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 63.7% (67,155 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 Ronnie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ronnie a male name?
Yes, 95.8% of people registered as Ronnie 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 Ronnie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ronnie 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 Ronnie 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 Ronnie?
If you just want to know how many Americans are named Ronnie, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.