Roxann
Feminine · “little shining one”
A French play put this name on every stage in Europe. Cyrano de Bergerac opened in 1897, ran for hundreds of performances, and made Roxane the object of one of the most quoted romances in the theater — a woman loved by a man who writes another man's letters for him. The American spelling replaces the French ending with Ann, which is about as thorough a naturalization as a name can undergo.
How old is the name Roxann?
Roxann first appears in US birth records in 1932 — 93 years ago. The typical Roxann alive today was born around 1962, making them about 63 years old. About 7,700 people named Roxann are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Roxann most popular?
Roxann peaked in 1955, reaching #429 nationally. Today it ranks #13208, 12,779 places below that high. See the whole 1955 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Roshanak to Roxann
The story of Roxann
Rostand's play was a phenomenon and its heroine's name went everywhere with it. The American record shows Roxanne and its spellings rising through the first half of the twentieth century and peaking in the mid-1950s, a full generation after the play's height, which is the usual delay for a literary name. Roxann is the version that ends in a familiar English name rather than a French one, and it belongs to the same American habit that produced Marianne, Leighann and Ruthann.
Meaning
little shining one
From the Old Persian roshanak, a diminutive of the word for bright. The Ann at the end of this spelling is not part of the original name at all — it is an American substitution, replacing an ending that looked foreign with one that did not. So the name's meaning belongs entirely to its first two syllables.
How the name formed
- Roshanak
- Roxane
- Roxanne
- Roxann
Related forms: Roxane · Roshanak · Roxana
Pronouncing Roxann
rok-SAN
Two syllables with the stress at the back. The doubled n at the end fixes the vowel short, which is why this spelling and Roxanne are said identically and Roxane is sometimes not.
Nicknames for Roxann
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
- 1932
- Most girls named
- 1955426 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #429reached in 1955
- Change vs 2023
- −33.3%6 in 2025, 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.
Roxann in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Roxane in French — same name
- Roshanak in Persian — same name
- Roxana in Spanish — same name
Roxanns among us
people named Roxann are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 267,878 born in 2025 was named Roxann
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 Magdalene test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Roxann's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Magdalene climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Magdalene's path sketches the road Roxann is walking now.
Roxann 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
Roxann beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Roxann in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Ann is visible inside it and available as a plain everyday name.
- Roxy is one of the more cheerful short forms English offers.
- The Persian meaning behind it is documented and entirely positive.
- It is readable on sight with no ambiguity about the stress.
- Roxanne is the commonest spelling and will be written instead.
- A very well-known song carries the name and will be sung at anyone who has it.
- It belongs to a mid-century American generation and reads that way.
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What they receive
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Roxann
Feminine · #13208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Roxanns are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,700 people named Roxann are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Roxann in 2025?
- Roxann ranks #13208 among US girl names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Roxann?
- About 1 in every 267,878 US girls born in 2025 was named Roxann — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Roxann with classmates?
- Roxann will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Roxann
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
John#13208 · Vinnie#13208 · Margery#13208 · Jossie#13208 · Tressa#13208 · Erie#13208 · Bernadine#13208 · Euna#13208
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Roxann? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Roxann and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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