Rodell
Masculine
Rodell is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 807 boys against 11 girls since 1880.
Rodell is an American name with two plausible roads behind it and no documentation for either. What it shares a front syllable with is one of the strangest units of measurement ever put into law, and the method for finding it is worth the price of admission on its own.
How old is the name Rodell?
Rodell first appears in US birth records in 1912 — 113 years ago. The typical Rodell alive today was born around 1957, making them about 68 years old. About 500 people named Rodell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rodell most popular?
Rodell peaked in 1956, reaching #1608 nationally. See the whole 1956 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Rodell
A rod is an old English unit of length, still used to measure land, equal to sixteen and a half feet, which is an absurd figure until you learn where it came from. A sixteenth-century German surveying manual gives the method: after the service on a Sunday, stop sixteen men as they come out of church, tall ones and short ones just as they happen to be, line them up heel to toe, and measure the total. That is a rod. The unevenness was the point. Any sixteen men would do, so no lord could argue that his own foot was the standard, and the average did the work. Rodell has no documented connection to the word. But a name with an unrecoverable origin can be allowed to keep company with a measurement that was taken from a churchyard queue.
Meaningnot established
Not established
It may be a surname used as a first name, or a name built from a front syllable and an ending in the ordinary American way. The record holds it for boys and for girls and explains neither.
Pronouncing Rodell
ro-DELL
Two syllables with the weight on the second. ROD-ell is also heard and neither has settled.
Nicknames for Rodell
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
- 1912
- Most boys named
- 195624 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1608reached in 1956
- Change vs 2009
- +60.0%8 in 2012, from 5
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.
Rodells among us
people named Rodell 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
Rodell 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
- Rod is ready as a short form and needs no explanation anywhere in the English-speaking world.
- It is spelled as it sounds and never needs repeating.
- It is recorded for boys and for girls, so it leaves a question open rather than closing it.
- The spelling is recorded for a few girls, but nearly every child with it is a boy.
- The stress lands two ways depending on the speaker, and the spelling settles neither.
- No origin is documented, so the meaning question has nothing to answer with.
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Rodell
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Rodells are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Rodell are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rodell in 2025?
- Rodell is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Rodell with classmates?
- Rodell will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More R names
The most-given names starting with R, all years combined.
Robert#92 · Richard#234 · Ronald#637 · Ryan#99 · Raymond#394 · Roger#832 · Ralph#1046 · Roy#525
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rodell? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rodell and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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