Rodolfo
Masculine · “famous wolf”
Rodolfo is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 33,773 boys against 83 girls since 1880.
Rodolfo is the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese form of a Germanic name that Frankish and Lombard nobles carried more than a thousand years ago, softened over centuries into three round vowels and a stress that lands square in the middle: roh-DOHL-foh. Puccini gave it to the poet in La Bohème, so it has been sung in opera houses on every continent. In the United States it has held a quiet, unbroken place for well over a century.
How old is the name Rodolfo?
Rodolfo first appears in US birth records in 1902 — 123 years ago. The typical Rodolfo alive today was born around 1983, making them about 42 years old. About 27,500 people named Rodolfo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rodolfo most popular?
Rodolfo peaked in 1981, reaching #311 nationally. Today it ranks #1466, 1,155 places below that high. See the whole 1981 chart.
Rodolfo appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Hrodwulf to Rodolfo
The story of Rodolfo
The name began as Germanic Hrodwulf, common among the Franks and the Lombards, and it moved south with them. In Latin documents it was written Rodulfus, and from that Latin spelling the Romance languages each took their own form: Rodolfo in Italy, Spain and Portugal, Rodolphe in France, while German kept the harder Rudolf. Medieval Italy used it steadily — Puccini's bohemian poet is only the most heard-of Rodolfo — and Spain carried it across the Atlantic. Its American record follows Spanish-speaking families, with the strongest presence in Texas, California and Arizona.
Meaning
famous wolf
From the Germanic elements hrod, 'fame, glory', and wulf, 'wolf' — a compound of the kind Frankish and Gothic families favored, pairing an abstract virtue with an animal.
How the name formed
- Hrodwulf
- Rodulfus
- Rudolf
- Rodolphe
- Rodolfo
Related forms: Rudolf · Rudolph · Rodolphe · Rodolfo · Roelof · Rolf
Pronouncing Rodolfo
roh-DOHL-foh
Stress on the middle syllable in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese alike. English speakers sometimes flatten the first vowel toward 'ruh-'; the name survives it, and either version is understood.
Nicknames for Rodolfo
High
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
- 1902
- Most boys named
- 1981610 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #311reached in 1981
- Change vs 2023
- −7.6%121 in 2025, from 131
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.
Rodolfo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rudolf in German — same name
- Rudolph in English — same name
- Rodolphe in French — same name
- Rodolfo in Italian — same name
- Roelof in Dutch — related form
- Rolf in Norwegian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Arizona.
Rodolfos among us
people named Rodolfo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 14,116 born in 2025 was named Rodolfo
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Elvis test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rodolfo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Elvis climbed just as high around 1957, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Elvis's path sketches the road Rodolfo is walking now.
Rodolfo sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Rodolfo is headed
Rodolfo should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Rodolfo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rodolfo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One spelling across Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, so it needs no adaptation as it moves between those languages.
- A documented line back to Germanic Hrodwulf, unbroken through Latin records and every major European language.
- Several ready-made short forms — Rodo, Fito, Rudy — covering both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking settings.
- Long, uninterrupted presence in US records, familiar to older generations without ever having been a fashion name.
- The English cousin Rudolph is inseparable from the Christmas reindeer, and children who know the song sometimes make the leap. Rodolfo is a step away from it, but not out of earshot.
- English speakers may put the stress in the wrong place or reach for Rudolph on first sight. A correction once or twice usually settles it.
- A classmate with the same name is unlikely, which is pleasant for some families and lonely for others — worth knowing either way.
- Rodolfo and Rudolfo both circulate in writing, so expect an occasional letter swapped on forms.
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What they receive
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Rodolfo
Masculine · #1466 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rodolfos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 27,500 people named Rodolfo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rodolfo in 2025?
- Rodolfo ranks #1466 among US boy names in 2025, with 121 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rodolfo?
- About 1 in every 14,116 US boys born in 2025 was named Rodolfo — 121 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rodolfo with classmates?
- Rodolfo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rodolfo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Akiva#1466 · Malek#1466 · Joao#1466 · Jetson#1466 · Monte#1466 · Calloway#1466 · Sire#1466 · Ishmael#1466
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rodolfo? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rodolfo and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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