Rooney
A male name of Irish origin, derived from the word 'rúanaidhe' meaning red-haired.
Name Census estimates that about 1,385 living Americans carry the first name Rooney. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 54.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Rooney today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rooney births was 2024 (140 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rooney. 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 Rooney with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Rooney sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Rooney is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 13 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 247,476 Americans
Peak year
2024
140 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,970
Tracked since 1943
Census
Rooney in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 799 people with the first name Rooney, which placed it at #14,674 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
#14,674
National first-name rank
People counted
799
799 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rooney
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rooney is White at 54.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.3%). 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 Rooney 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 Rooney at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.9% · 439
- Hispanic or Latino23.3% · 186
- Asian and Pacific Islander9.3% · 74
- Black or African American7.3% · 58
- Two or more races4.4% · 35
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Rooney
Rooney is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,417 total registrations, 643 (45.4%) were male and 774 (54.6%) were female.
Rooney as a male name
- Ranked #3,079 in 2024
- 40 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (44 births)
Rooney as a female name
- Ranked #1,970 in 2024
- 100 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (100 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Rooney on both sides of the split. Of the 803 people counted with this name, 420 were male (52.3%) and 383 were female (47.7%).
Popularity
Rooney: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rooney from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 614 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rooney 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 Rooney during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rooneys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 13 states and territories. California, Ohio, Texas recorded the most babies named Rooney, while Tennessee, Michigan, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 22 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rooney
The given name Rooney has its origins in the Irish language, deriving from the Gaelic words 'Ró' meaning 'great' and 'Oinigh' meaning 'descendant' or 'offspring'. Together, these words combine to form the meaning 'great descendant' or 'illustrious offspring'. This name was predominantly used in Ireland and Scotland during medieval times.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rooney can be found in the Annals of the Four Masters, a chronicle of medieval Irish history. This text, compiled in the 17th century, mentions a cleric named Maolmuire O'Rooney who served as the Primate of Armagh in the 12th century.
In the 14th century, a notable figure named Ruaidhri Ó Rodáin, anglicized as Rory O'Rooney, was a prominent Irish chieftain and leader of the Ó Rodáin clan in County Leitrim, Ireland. He played a significant role in the Irish resistance against English control during the Norman invasion of Ireland.
Another historical figure with the name Rooney was Patrick Rooney, an Irish Catholic priest and educator who lived in the 17th century. He established several schools in Ireland and was known for his efforts in promoting education among the Catholic population during a time of religious persecution.
In the 18th century, Andrew Rooney, an Irish-born American soldier and statesman, served as a member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and was a delegate to the Continental Congress during the American Revolutionary War.
In more recent times, one of the most famous individuals with the name Rooney was the American actor, comedian, and filmmaker Mickey Rooney (1920-2014). Born as Joseph Yule Jr., he adopted the stage name Mickey Rooney and had a prolific career spanning nine decades, appearing in numerous films and television shows.
People
Rooney + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rooney 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
Rooney: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rooney?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,385 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rooney 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 247,476 US residents.
Is Rooney a common name?
We classify Rooney as "Rare". It ranks above 92% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,417 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rooney most popular?
The single biggest year for Rooney was 2024, when 140 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rooney is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rooney in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 799 people with the name Rooney, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,674 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 Rooney 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 Rooney?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Rooney on both sides of the split. Of the 803 people counted with this name, 420 were male (52.3%) and 383 were female (47.7%). 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 Rooney?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rooney is White at 54.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (23.3%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (9.3%). 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 Rooney most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rooney in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.9% (439 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 Rooney in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rooney a female name?
Yes, 54.6% of people registered as Rooney 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 Rooney still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rooney 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 Rooney 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 called Rooney?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.