Rolan
Masculine · “Famous throughout the land”
Rolan is Roland with the final consonant gone, and Roland is the paladin who died at Roncevaux with Charlemagne's army — the hero of the oldest surviving work of French literature. Its meaning is Germanic and plain: famous across the land.
How old is the name Rolan?
Rolan first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Rolan alive today was born around 1986, making them about 39 years old. About 800 people named Rolan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rolan most popular?
Rolan peaked in 1923, reaching #1874 nationally. Today it ranks #5399, 3,525 places below that high. See the whole 1923 chart.
Where it comes from
From Hrodland to Rolan
The story of Rolan
Roland was warden of the Breton march and died in the rearguard at Roncevaux Pass in 778; three centuries later the Chanson de Roland turned a small ambush by Basques into an epic against Saracens and made him the model of the Christian knight. Statues of Roland stood in the market squares of northern German towns as symbols of civic liberty. The name became ordinary across Europe, and America used it heavily in the early twentieth century. Rolan appears as a variant in the same years, peaking in 1923, and is also used in Spanish-speaking families where the final d would not be sounded anyway.
Meaning
Famous throughout the land
From the Germanic Hrodland, from hrod, fame or renown, and land. The reading is settled and both elements are transparent. The dropped d of Rolan is a spelling variant found in American records and separately in Spanish, where final d after n is regularly softened; it carries no separate meaning.
How the name formed
- Hrodland
- Roland
- Rolan
Related forms: Roland · Roland · Orlando · Rolando · Roland
Pronouncing Rolan
ROH-lan
Two syllables, stress on the first. Spanish-speaking bearers often say ro-LAHN with the weight at the back, which is where Spanish would put it.
Nicknames for Rolan
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 202133 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1874reached in 1923
- Change vs 2023
- 0.0%17 in 2025, from 17
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.
Rolan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Roland in French — related form
- Roland in German — related form
- Orlando in Italian — related form
- Rolando in Spanish — related form
- Roland in Hungarian — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Rolans among us
people named Rolan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 100,475 born in 2025 was named Rolan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Rolan 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
Rolan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rolan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Germanic meaning is settled and unusually good.
- It carries one of the foundational figures of European literature.
- Rollie and Ro both work as short forms.
- Roland is the standard spelling and will be written for it.
- The stress differs between English and Spanish speakers.
- Roland is strongly dated to the first half of the twentieth century in America.
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Rolan
Masculine · #5399 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rolans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Rolan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rolan in 2025?
- Rolan ranks #5399 among US boy names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rolan?
- About 1 in every 100,475 US boys born in 2025 was named Rolan — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rolan with classmates?
- Rolan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rolan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Frazier#5399 · Franz#5399 · Demetrio#5399 · Rayvon#5399 · Riddick#5399 · Laramie#5399 · Vishnu#5399 · Soloman#5399
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rolan? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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