Rosalee
Feminine · “rose”
Rosalee is the plain-English spelling of Rosalie, a name that traces back through medieval Sicily to the Latin word for rose. It has been on American records across many generations without ever crowding a classroom, and it carries its own ready-made short forms — Rosie, Rose — already familiar to everyone who hears them.
How old is the name Rosalee?
Rosalee was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Rosalee alive today was born around 1948, making them about 77 years old. About 7,800 people named Rosalee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rosalee most popular?
Rosalee peaked in 1938, reaching #403 nationally. Today it ranks #954, 551 places below that high. See the whole 1938 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Rosa to Rosalee
The story of Rosalee
The root is Latin rosa, and the fuller form Rosalia belonged first to a Roman festival of the roses, when tombs were decked with flowers in early summer. Rosalia was later the name of a twelfth-century hermit of Palermo, and Sicilian devotion to her carried the name through Italy; the French shortened it to Rosalie, and German and Central European families took it up in that shape. English speakers brought Rosalie across the Atlantic and then rewrote its tail phonetically, giving Rosalee — the same name, spelled the way Americans actually say it. Its strongest showing today is across Texas, California and Ohio.
Meaning
rose
From Latin rosa, by way of Rosalia and Rosalie. The -lee ending is an English respelling of French -lie, and in American use the name is often read as Rosa plus Lee.
How the name formed
- Rosa
- Rosalia
- Rosalie
- Rosalee
Related forms: Rosalie · Rosalia · Rosalía · Rozalia · Rozália · Rosália
Pronouncing Rosalee
ROH-zuh-lee
Stress falls on the first syllable. Some speakers push it to the end, roh-zuh-LEE; both are heard, and the spelling gives no trouble either way.
Nicknames for Rosalee
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
- 1880
- Most girls named
- 2019285 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #403reached in 1938
- Change vs 2022
- −3.6%270 in 2025, from 280
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.
Rosalee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rosalie in French — spelling variant
- Rosalia in Italian — same name
- Rosalía in Spanish — same name
- Rozalia in Polish — transliteration
- Rozália in Hungarian — related form
- Rosália in Portuguese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Rosalees among us
people named Rosalee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,953 born in 2025 was named Rosalee
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 Ferne test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rosalee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ferne climbed just as high around 1916, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ferne's path sketches the road Rosalee is walking now.
Rosalee 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 Rosalee is headed
Rosalee should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium 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.
Rosalee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rosalee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds — a listener can write it down correctly on the first try more easily than with Rosalie.
- Comes with short forms already in wide use: Rosie, Rose, Rosa, none of which need explaining.
- Sits inside a large, old family of rose names, so it travels easily to Italian, Spanish, French and Polish relatives.
- Recorded in the United States across generation after generation, never fashionable enough to date a child to one year.
- Rosalie is the better-known spelling, so expect a lifetime of gentle corrections — and of forms coming back with an -ie on the end.
- Still strongly represented among older generations, which means it may read as a grandmother's name to some ears before it reads as a child's.
- Rosalee, Rosaleigh, Rosalie and Rosalia all sound close enough to be confused aloud, so the written form will often need spelling out.
- On the other side of that: a Rosalee is unlikely to share her name with anyone else in her grade.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Rosalee
Feminine · #954 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rosalees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,800 people named Rosalee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rosalee in 2025?
- Rosalee ranks #954 among US girl names in 2025, with 270 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rosalee?
- About 1 in every 5,953 US girls born in 2025 was named Rosalee — 270 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rosalee with classmates?
- Rosalee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rosalee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Yasmin#955 · Anika#955 · Kinslee#955 · Love#955 · Malaysia#955 · Sariah#950 · Zyla#950 · Yuna#950
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rosalee? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rosalee and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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