Ronnald
Masculine · “ruler by counsel”
Ronnald is Ronald with an extra n, and the extra n changes nothing that can be heard. The name itself is Norse, and its first element turns up in a place nobody expects: it is half the name of the most famous animal in medieval literature, who is the reason the French word for fox is what it is.
How old is the name Ronnald?
Ronnald first appears in US birth records in 1935 — 90 years ago. The typical Ronnald alive today was born around 1953, making them about 72 years old. About 500 people named Ronnald are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ronnald most popular?
Ronnald peaked in 1948, reaching #1145 nationally. See the whole 1948 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Rögnvaldr to Ronnald
The story of Ronnald
The first half of this name survives in one of the best-known characters in European literature. Medieval French had a perfectly good word for a fox — goupil, straight from Latin — until a cycle of satirical poems arrived in which the fox is a named individual, Renart, who cheats the wolf, humiliates the lion's court and always gets away. The poems were enormously popular for centuries, copied, extended and translated across Europe, and the character became so completely identified with the animal that his name displaced the noun. Modern French calls the animal renard, and goupil has gone, surviving only as a surname. It is one of the very few cases where a fictional character's name has become a language's ordinary word for a real species. That name and this one share their front element: the counselling powers, the gods' advice.
Meaning
ruler by counsel; ruler with the gods' advice
From Old Norse Rögnvaldr, built from regin, the counselling powers or the gods, and valdr, a ruler. The same first element sits inside Reynard and inside Reginald. The doubled n in this spelling is not documented and appears to be a family's own change.
How the name formed
- Rögnvaldr
- Ronald
- Ronnald
Related forms: Ragnvald · Raghnall · Rinaldo · Reinaldo
Pronouncing Ronnald
RON-uld
Two syllables with the stress at the front. The doubled n makes no audible difference; it does bring the spelling into line with Ronnie, which is probably the point.
Nicknames for Ronnald
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
- 1935
- Most boys named
- 194839 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1145reached in 1948
- Change vs 1977
- +20.0%6 in 2000, 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.
Ronnald in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ragnvald in Norwegian — related form
- Raghnall in Scottish Gaelic — related form
- Rinaldo in Italian — related form
- Reinaldo in Spanish — related form
Ronnalds among us
people named Ronnald 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
Ronnald 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
- The name is understood everywhere and needs no introduction.
- Ron and Ronnie are both ready-made and cover formal and informal use.
- The doubled n makes the short form Ronnie look like a natural cut rather than an added letter.
- Ronald is far commoner and this spelling will be corrected for a lifetime.
- The extra letter is silent, so it has to be spelled out every single time.
- The name is strongly associated with one mid-century generation.
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Ronnald
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Ronnalds 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 Ronnald are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ronnald in 2025?
- Ronnald is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Ronnald with classmates?
- Ronnald 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 Ronnald? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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