Rodney
Boy nameRodney has been given to 248,325 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It peaked in 1965.
Meaning & origin /ˈɹɑdni/
From Old English placename Hrōdanīeġ, Hrōdanīġ (literally “Hroda's island”), from Proto-Germanic *hrōþiz (“fame”) and *awjō (“island”).
Origin: surnames
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Popularity over time births per year, 1880–2025
Total babies
248,325
Peak year
1965 (11,132 babies)
Rank in 2025
Below top 1000
First recorded
1880
10-year trend
▼ -43%
Gender split
0% girls / 100% boys
Famous people named Rodney
Rodney Robert Porter
English biochemist and Nobel laureate (1917–1985)
Rodney King
African American police brutality victim (1965–2012)
James R. Schlesinger
United States Secretary of Defense; United States Secretary of Energy; economist, academic and educator (1929-2014)
Yokozuna
American professional wrestler (1966-2000)
Notability data from Wikidata (CC0).
Names with a similar vibe
Same primary gender, peaked around the same years, and roughly as common as Rodney.
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