Roshonda
Feminine
Roshonda is built on a base that has been one of the most productive in American naming for sixty years, and that base finally acquired a famous bearer at the point where the name itself had almost stopped being given. Shonda Rhimes has written or run more hours of American network television than almost anybody alive.
How old is the name Roshonda?
Roshonda first appears in US birth records in 1966 — 59 years ago. The typical Roshonda alive today was born around 1981, making them about 44 years old. About 1,000 people named Roshonda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Roshonda most popular?
Roshonda peaked in 1976, reaching #1619 nationally. See the whole 1976 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Shonda formed inside American naming to Roshonda
The story of Roshonda
Shonda Rhimes wrote a pilot about surgical interns, sold it in the middle of the 2000s, and then kept going: another hospital drama, a political thriller, a courtroom series, a Regency romance, several of them running at once and one night of the week eventually belonging entirely to her. What made the work unusual was not only the volume but the casting — she wrote parts without specifying race and let the auditions decide, which changed what American prime-time looked like faster than a decade of arguing about it had. The name she carries is one that a generation of American families had already made from nothing.
Meaningnot established
Not established
The base is Shonda, which has no source outside the naming system that produced it, and the front is one of a small set of elements — La, Sha, Ta, De, Ro — that attach to it and to a hundred other bases. Where the Ro came from is not recorded and probably never was: it may be from Rosa or Roshanda or a family name, or it may simply have been the sound that fitted. Names made this way are not less real for having no etymology, but they cannot be given one honestly.
How the name formed
- Shonda formed inside American naming
- a set of front elements attaches to it
- Roshonda appears in the record in the middle 1960s
- peaks in the middle 1970s
- the base name acquires a famous bearer decades later
Related forms: Roshanda · Lashonda · Shonda
Pronouncing Roshonda
roh-SHON-duh
Three syllables with the weight in the middle. The spelling and the sound agree entirely, which is the point of how names in this family are written.
Nicknames for Roshonda
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
- 1966
- Most girls named
- 197661 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1619reached in 1976
- Change vs 2001
- 0.0%9 in 2002, from 9
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.
Roshonda in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Roshanda in English — spelling variant
- Lashonda in English — related form
- Shonda in English — related form
Roshondas among us
people named Roshonda 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
Roshonda 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
- It is read correctly at first sight because nothing in the spelling is doing anything unexpected.
- Shonda and Ro are both available and pull in different directions.
- The rhythm is the three-beat one English handles most comfortably.
- Roshanda is the commoner spelling and the middle vowel will be corrected regularly.
- There is no meaning, and the front element cannot be traced to anything.
- It is closely dated to a couple of decades in the middle of the last century.
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Roshonda
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Roshondas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Roshonda are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Roshonda in 2025?
- Roshonda is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Roshonda with classmates?
- Roshonda will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More R names
The most-given names starting with R, all years combined.
Ruth#173 · Rebecca#349 · Rachel#250 · Rose#114 · Ruby#64 · Robin#704 · Rita#1285 · Rhonda#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Roshonda? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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