Roscoe
Masculine · “roe deer wood”
Roscoe is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 22,159 boys against 11 girls since 1880.
Roscoe is a wood where roe deer live. It is a Norse place name in Lancashire, and both of its elements come from the language the Vikings left behind in the north-west of England.
How old is the name Roscoe?
Roscoe was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Roscoe alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 7,000 people named Roscoe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Roscoe most popular?
Roscoe peaked in 1881, reaching #117 nationally. Today it ranks #2230, 2,113 places below that high. See the whole 1881 chart.
Where it comes from
From rá + skógr to Roscoe
The story of Roscoe
Norse settlement in Lancashire and Cumbria left a layer of Scandinavian place names, and Roscoe is one of them. The surname was carried by William Roscoe, a Liverpool banker, historian and anti-slavery campaigner whose reputation in the early nineteenth century was considerable on both sides of the Atlantic — and American families named sons for him. Roscoe peaked in American records around 1881.
Meaning
roe deer wood
From the Old Norse rá, 'roe deer', and skógr, 'wood'. Both words came into north-western English with Scandinavian settlement, and skógr is the -scoe and -scough of several Lancashire place names. The compound is transparent.
How the name formed
- rá + skógr
- Roscoe
Related forms: Ráskógr · Rosco
Pronouncing Roscoe
ROS-koh
Two syllables, stress on the first. No variation between English accents.
Nicknames for Roscoe
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
- 1918561 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #117reached in 1881
- Change vs 2022
- −22.2%63 in 2025, from 81
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.
Roscoe in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ráskógr in Norse — related form
- Rosco in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Oregon, Indiana.
Roscoes among us
people named Roscoe are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 27,112 born in 2025 was named Roscoe
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
Roscoe 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 Roscoe is headed
Roscoe 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.
Roscoe beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Roscoe in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and easy to picture, and both Norse elements are well attested.
- It records a documented layer of Viking settlement in north-west England.
- Ross is available as a short form with an independent record.
- It reads as a surname to many people, which is what it was for centuries.
- It is strongly period-coded to the late nineteenth century.
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What they receive
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Roscoe
Masculine · #2230 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Roscoes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,000 people named Roscoe are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Roscoe in 2025?
- Roscoe ranks #2230 among US boy names in 2025, with 63 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Roscoe?
- About 1 in every 27,112 US boys born in 2025 was named Roscoe — 63 in all.
- Will my child share the name Roscoe with classmates?
- Roscoe will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Roscoe
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rayaan#2230 · Tyce#2230 · Earl#2230 · Gene#2230 · Sylis#2230 · Vinny#2230 · Klaus#2230 · Damoni#2230
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Roscoe? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Roscoe and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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