Rowdy
A masculine name suggesting boisterousness, misbehavior, or unruly behavior.
Name Census estimates that about 4,656 living Americans carry the first name Rowdy. It is a predominantly male name (98.8% of registrations). The average person named Rowdy today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rowdy births was 2024 (256 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rowdy. 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.
Key insights
- • Although Rowdy is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 59 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
4.7K
~ 1 in 73,616 Americans
Peak year
2024
256 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#926
Tracked since 1959
Census
Rowdy in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,176 people with the first name Rowdy, which placed it at #5,419 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
#5,419
National first-name rank
People counted
3.2K
3,176 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rowdy
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rowdy is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.2%) and Hispanic (5.0%). 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 Rowdy 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 Rowdy at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.3% · 2,677
- Two or more races5.2% · 164
- Hispanic or Latino5.0% · 159
- American Indian and Alaska Native4.3% · 136
- Black or African American1.0% · 31
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.3% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Rowdy
Rowdy leans heavily male at 98.8% of total registrations, but 59 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Rowdy as a male name
- Ranked #926 in 2024
- 250 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (250 births)
Rowdy as a female name
- Ranked #14,889 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (14 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rowdy leans strongly male. 3,128 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 55 female bearers (1.7%).
Popularity
Rowdy: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rowdy from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,241 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
Rowdy 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 Rowdy during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rowdys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 33 states and territories. Texas, Oklahoma, California recorded the most babies named Rowdy, while West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 74 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rowdy
The name Rowdy has its origins in American English, emerging in the late 19th century. It is derived from the word "rowdy," which means noisy, disorderly, or rough in behavior. The name is thought to have been coined as a descriptive nickname for boisterous or unruly individuals, likely in reference to their personalities or actions.
One of the earliest recorded uses of the name Rowdy can be found in the 1898 novel "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin. In the book, a character named Rowdy Jenks is mentioned, though his full name is not provided. This suggests that the name was in use, albeit perhaps as a nickname, in the late 19th century.
The first known person to be officially given the name Rowdy was Rowdy Bates, an American baseball player born in 1899. Bates played for several minor league teams throughout the 1920s and 1930s, earning his nickname due to his fiery temperament on the field.
Another notable individual named Rowdy was Rowdy Yates, a character portrayed by Clint Eastwood in the 1959-1965 television series "Rawhide." Rowdy Yates was a trail scout and ramrod on a cattle drive, known for his rough-and-tumble personality. This fictional character likely contributed to the popularization of the name in the mid-20th century.
In the world of professional wrestling, Rodney Piper, better known as "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (1954-2015), was a iconic figure. Piper's brash and confrontational persona earned him the nickname "Rowdy," which he embraced and incorporated into his ring name.
Rowdy Gaines, an American swimmer born in 1959, is another individual who carried the name. Gaines won three gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and was known for his energetic and enthusiastic personality, fitting the "rowdy" moniker.
While the name Rowdy is relatively uncommon, it has been used throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, often as a nod to its connotations of spiritedness and liveliness. Its unique and descriptive nature has made it a distinctive choice for parents seeking a name that captures a sense of energy and individuality.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Rowdy
People
Rowdy + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rowdy 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
Rowdy: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rowdy?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,656 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rowdy 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 73,616 US residents.
Is Rowdy a common name?
We classify Rowdy as "Rare". It ranks above 96.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,786 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rowdy most popular?
The single biggest year for Rowdy was 2024, when 256 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rowdy is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rowdy in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,176 people with the name Rowdy, or 1.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,419 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 Rowdy 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 Rowdy?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rowdy leans strongly male. 3,128 people counted with this name were male (98.3%), compared with 55 female bearers (1.7%). 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 Rowdy?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rowdy is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.2%) and Hispanic (5.0%). 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 Rowdy most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rowdy in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.3% (2,677 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 Rowdy in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rowdy a male name?
Yes, 98.8% of people registered as Rowdy 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 Rowdy still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rowdy 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 Rowdy 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 share the name Rowdy?
Want to know how many Americans are named Rowdy? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.