Rolla
Masculine
Rolla is given to both — 1,306 boys and 65 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Rolla came off a stage. It was the name of the hero in the most successful English play of its decade, a Peruvian warrior who dies saving a child, and for a century afterwards American families used it without ever knowing that was where they had got it.
How old is the name Rolla?
Rolla was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Rolla alive today was born around 1921, making them about 104 years old. About 200 people named Rolla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rolla most popular?
Rolla peaked in 1891, reaching #364 nationally. See the whole 1891 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Rolla
Richard Brinsley Sheridan adapted a German tragedy for Drury Lane at the very end of the eighteenth century and called it Pizarro. It was an enormous hit, ran for years, was printed and reprinted, and was performed all over the United States for decades afterwards; its hero, Rolla, makes a speech about defending a homeland that American audiences took entirely to heart. Names travel out of theaters reliably, and this one did. What happened next is a problem of English rather than of the play: the name ends in an unstressed a, and English reads a final a on a personal name as a signal that the person is a woman, because almost every name it knows with that ending belongs to one. The result is a man's stage name that the American record carries for daughters as well as sons.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The playwright took the name from a German original and neither of them explained it. It resembles Rollo, the Latin form of the Norse name behind the dukes of Normandy, and it resembles nothing in the Quechua-speaking world the character is supposed to come from. The honest position is that it was invented for the theater, for its sound, and that trying to give it an etymology means choosing between two guesses with nothing to separate them.
Pronouncing Rolla
ROL-uh
Two syllables with the stress at the front and a short o. The final vowel is the flat unstressed one, so the name is said exactly as Rolla, Rolle and Roller are in accents that drop the r.
Nicknames for Rolla
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 191645 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #364reached in 1891
- Change vs 1962
- −14.3%6 in 1964, from 7
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.
Rollas among us
people named Rolla 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
Rolla 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, easy to say and easy to spell, with nothing in it that can be got wrong once heard.
- It has a documented literary source, which is rare for a name of its period and its rarity.
- The name works for a child of either sex, and did so long before that was a deliberate choice.
- The final a reads as a woman's ending in English, and the record carries the name for both, so it signals nothing.
- It is strongly dated to the nineteenth century and sounds like a great-grandparent's name.
- The play it came from is no longer performed, so the connection has to be explained rather than recognized.
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Rolla
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Rollas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 200 people named Rolla are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rolla in 2025?
- Rolla is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Rolla with classmates?
- Rolla 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 Rolla? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rolla and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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