Humanverse

Ronan vs Ronold

American parents have registered 20,938 Ronans since 1880, against 865 Ronolds. Ronan is still ahead, with 1,428 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ronan against Ronold, 1880 to 2025 0 400 800 1.2k 1.6k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ronan Ronold

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

Of the 96 years in which either name was published, Ronold for 49 years and Ronan for 47 years. The lead changed hands once.

Side by side

  Ronan Ronold
Total US births 20,938865
Most in one year 1,42835
Babies in 2025 1,428under 5
Estimated living today 21,000480
Median age today 769
Peak year 20251950
Best rank 247th boys1,220th boys
Rank in 2025 247thunranked
First recorded 19591927
Girls / boys 259 / 20,6790 / 865

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 Ronolds alive today are over 69; half the Ronans are over 7. That is 62 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

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