Roman
Masculine · “Of Rome”
Roman is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 104,653 boys against 478 girls since 1880.
Roman is the Latin word for a Roman — Romanus, the plain adjective for someone from the city. It went east with Christianity, took root in Polish, Czech, Ukrainian and Russian households, and came back into English with two easy syllables and no spelling trouble at all. Few names carry a place that old and still sound this uncomplicated said across a playground.
How old is the name Roman?
Roman first appears in US birth records in 1882 — 143 years ago. The typical Roman is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 96,500 people named Roman are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Roman most popular?
Roman peaked in 2025, reaching #42 nationally. Today it ranks #42, exactly where it peaked. See the whole 2025 chart.
Where it comes from
From Roma to Roman
The story of Roman
Romanus began as a description rather than a name: it marked a person as belonging to Rome, and later to the Roman world in its widest sense. Early Christians used it as a personal name, and it passed through Byzantium into the Slavic languages, where it became one of the standard men's names of Poland, Bohemia, Ukraine and Russia. Western Europe kept its own versions — Romain in France, Romano in Italy, Román in Spain — while English speakers largely left it alone until recent generations. Its arrival in American use owes a good deal to Central and Eastern European families, and it now climbs quickly among English speakers who meet it simply as a familiar English word made into a name.
Meaning
Of Rome; a Roman
From Latin Romanus, the adjective formed on Roma. The city's own name is the older puzzle — that one has never been settled.
How the name formed
- Roma
- Romanus
- Roman
Related forms: Roman · Роман (Roman) · Romain · Romano · Román · Romanus
Pronouncing Roman
ROH-mun
Stress on the first syllable in English. Polish and Russian speakers put the weight on the second — roh-MAHN — so the same child may be called two slightly different things by two sides of a family.
Nicknames for Roman
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
- 1882
- Most boys named
- 20256,162 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #42reached in 2025
- Change vs 2022
- +30.0%6,162 in 2025, from 4,740
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.
Roman in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Roman in Polish — same name
- Роман (Roman) in Russian — transliteration
- Romain in French — same name
- Romano in Italian — same name
- Román in Spanish — same name
- Romanus in Latin — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida. International figures from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Statistics Canada. Sources
Romans among us
people named Roman are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 277 born in 2025 was named Roman
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 Bryan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Roman's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Bryan climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Bryan's path sketches the road Roman is walking now.
Roman is climbing fast right now. Steep climbs tend to come with steep descents — the quicker a name arrives, the more firmly it belongs to its moment.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Roman is headed
Roman 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.
Roman beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Roman in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A spelling every English reader already knows from the word itself — almost never misspelled, almost never misread.
- Works in Polish, Russian, German, Spanish and Italian with little or no change, and currently charts in England, Scotland and Canada too.
- Documented continuously from Latin antiquity onward, so it has never needed a revival to stay in use.
- Short forms exist in more than one language — Ro and Rome in English, Roma in Slavic households.
- It is also an everyday adjective: Roman numerals, Roman Catholic, the Roman Empire. The name never sits in neutral space, though most people barely notice.
- It is climbing quickly, so a child born now will likely meet more Romans as a teenager than the name suggests today.
- The two stress patterns — ROH-mun and roh-MAHN — can both be correct in one family, which usually means deciding early which one you answer to.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Roman to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Roman
Masculine · #42 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Romans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 96,500 people named Roman are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Roman in 2025?
- Roman ranks #42 among US boy names in 2025, with 6,162 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Roman?
- About 1 in every 277 US boys born in 2025 was named Roman — 6,162 in all.
- Will my child share the name Roman with classmates?
- Roman will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Roman
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Jacob#43 · Dylan#41 · Bennett#40 · Miles#44 · Carter#45 · Mason#39 · Wyatt#38 · Anthony#46
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Roman? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Roman and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Or jump into a head-to-head
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration; international figures from national statistics agencies. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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