Randall
Feminine · “Shield wolf”
Randall is given to boys far more often — 198,592 boys against 1,153 girls since 1880. See Randall as a boy name
Lord Randal is one of the oldest ballads in English and it is about a poisoning. A young man comes home, is asked by his mother where he has been, and answers in the same form each time; the questions get closer and closer until he admits that his sweetheart has fed him eels that were not eels.
How old is the name Randall?
Randall first appears in US birth records in 1929 — 96 years ago. The typical Randall alive today was born around 1970, making them about 55 years old. About 1,000 people named Randall are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Randall most popular?
Randall peaked in 1986, reaching #1380 nationally. See the whole 1986 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Randolf to Randall
The story of Randall
The ballad works entirely by repetition and by what is not said. Each stanza is a question and an answer with the same refrain, and the horror accumulates because the form does not change while the content does: first where he has been, then what he ate, then what happened to his dogs, then what he leaves to his mother, his brother, his sister, and finally to his true love, and the last bequest is the point of the whole song. It has been collected in dozens of versions across Britain, Ireland and America under a dozen names, and its structure has been borrowed by songwriters ever since, most famously in a song about hard rain.
Meaning
Shield wolf
The Germanic original joins a word for the rim of a shield to the word for a wolf, which is a warrior compound of the ordinary kind. Randall is the worn-down English form of it, and the doubled l at the end is an English addition that the original does not have.
How the name formed
- Randolf
- Randal
- Randall
Related forms: Randolf
Pronouncing Randall
RAN-dul
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The second is reduced to nothing, which is why Randall, Randal and Randell are all said the same way and all appear in the records.
Nicknames for Randall
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1929
- Most girls named
- 198693 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1380reached in 1986
- Change vs 2003
- −16.7%5 in 2004, from 6
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Randall in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Randolf in German — related form
Randalls among us
people named Randall are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Randall sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Short, firm and easy to spell once heard, with a documented Germanic line.
- It works for a child of either sex, which the record confirms.
- The meaning is concrete and can be given to a child in two words.
- The record carries it for girls in small numbers, so it is not quite an absolute signal.
- Randy is the short form most likely to attach, and it means something unhelpful in British English.
- It is strongly dated to the middle of the last century in American ears.
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What they receive
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Randall
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Randalls are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Randall are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Randall in 2025?
- Randall is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Randall with classmates?
- Randall will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More R names
The most-given names starting with R, all years combined.
Ruth#173 · Rebecca#349 · Rachel#250 · Rose#114 · Ruby#64 · Robin#704 · Rita#1285 · Rhonda#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Randall? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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