Humanverse

Roderick vs Rodman

American parents have registered 47,446 Rodericks since 1880, against 1,331 Rodmans. Roderick is still ahead, with 93 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Roderick against Rodman, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Roderick Rodman

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Roderick has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1880 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1919, when Roderick had 76 and Rodman had 24.

Side by side

  Roderick Rodman
Total US births 47,4461,331
Most in one year 1,06734
Babies in 2025 93under 5
Estimated living today 37,000600
Median age today 5060
Peak year 19711928
Best rank 223rd boys1,228th boys
Rank in 2025 1,743rdunranked
First recorded 18801912
Girls / boys 263 / 47,1830 / 1,331

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Rodmans alive today are over 60; half the Rodericks are over 50. That is 10 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Roderick and Rodman.