Roxana
From the Persian name Roxana, meaning "dawn" or "the little bright one".
Name Census estimates that about 10,661 living Americans carry the first name Roxana. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Roxana today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Roxana births was 1987 (320 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Roxana. 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 Roxana with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
11K
~ 1 in 32,150 Americans
Peak year
1987
320 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
1993 SSA rank
#2,091
Tracked since 1882
Census
Roxana in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 20,924 people with the first name Roxana, which placed it at #1,558 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
#1,558
National first-name rank
People counted
21K
20,924 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
6.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Hispanic or Latino
82.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Roxana
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roxana is Hispanic at 82.8%. The next largest groups are White (14.2%) and Black (1.0%). 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 Roxana 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 Roxana at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Hispanic or Latino82.8% · 17,332
- White14.2% · 2,981
- Black or African American1.0% · 209
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.0% · 204
- Two or more races0.7% · 153
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.2% · 45
Gender
Gender distribution for Roxana
Out of the 11,942 babies given the name Roxana since 1880, 99.8% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Roxana as a male name
- Ranked #8,501 in 1993
- 6 male births in 1993
- Peak: 1987 (7 births)
Roxana as a female name
- Ranked #2,091 in 2024
- 92 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1991 (315 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Roxana appears almost entirely female. Of the 20,917 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Roxana: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Roxana from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 2,522 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Roxana 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 Roxana during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Roxanas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 29 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Roxana, while South Carolina, New Mexico, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 285 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Roxana
The name Roxana has its roots in the Persian language and culture, originating from the ancient Persian name "Roshanak" which translates to "little star" or "bright". It is believed to have first emerged around the 6th century BCE during the Achaemenid Persian Empire.
The earliest recorded use of the name Roxana is found in ancient Greek texts, where it was spelled as "Rōxánē". This was the name of the wife of Alexander the Great, the renowned Macedonian king who conquered the Persian Empire in the 4th century BCE. Roxana was a Bactrian princess whom Alexander married in 327 BCE, solidifying his control over the eastern territories.
In ancient Greek mythology, Roxana was also the name of a Persian princess who was the daughter of the king Darius III and wife of Alexander the Great. This Roxana was renowned for her beauty and intelligence, and played a significant role in the political intrigues of the time.
Throughout history, the name Roxana has been associated with several notable figures. One of the earliest was Roxana of Persia, the wife of Alexander the Great, who lived from around 340 BCE to 311 BCE. Another famous Roxana was Roxana Terapeut, a Polish noblewoman and writer who lived from 1608 to 1688.
In literature, the name Roxana appears in the 18th-century novel "Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress" by Daniel Defoe, published in 1724. The novel's protagonist, Roxana, is a woman who endures many hardships and adventures throughout her life.
Other notable Roxanas include Roxana Caballero (born 1967), a Colombian actress and model, and Roxana Saberi (born 1977), an Iranian-American journalist who was briefly imprisoned in Iran in 2009.
Overall, the name Roxana has a rich and diverse history, spanning across cultures and centuries, with its origins rooted in the ancient Persian language and its associations with figures of historical significance, literature, and the arts.
People
Roxana + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Roxana 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
Roxana: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Roxana?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 10,661 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Roxana 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 32,150 US residents.
Is Roxana a common name?
We classify Roxana as "Uncommon". It ranks above 97.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11,942 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Roxana most popular?
The single biggest year for Roxana was 1987, when 320 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Roxana is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Roxana in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 20,924 people with the name Roxana, or 6.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,558 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 Roxana 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 Roxana?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Roxana appears almost entirely female. Of the 20,917 people counted with this name, 99.9% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Roxana?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Roxana is Hispanic at 82.8%. The next largest groups are White (14.2%) and Black (1.0%). 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 Roxana most often in the Census?
Hispanic is the largest reported group for people named Roxana in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.8% (17,332 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 Roxana in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Roxana a female name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Roxana 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 Roxana still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Roxana 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 Roxana 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 named Roxana?
Find out how many people share the name Roxana on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.