Rousseau

Rousseau is the 4,283rd most common surname in the United States, shared by 8,009 people at the 2020 census. That is about one person in 37,300.

By the numbers

People: 8,009
Rank: 4,283rd
How common: 1 in 37,300
Per 100,000: 2.7

Where the name comes from

Origin French

From French Rousseau. Originally a French nickname for someone with red hair, from roux (“redhead”). Compare russel.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Rousseau described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 78.2%
Black, not Hispanic 10.7%
Hispanic or Latino 4.4%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.1%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 1.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%

Notable people called Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer
Henri Rousseau (1844–1910)French painter
Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867)French painter
Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau (1846–1904)Prime Minister of France
Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (1670–1741)French poet
Florian Rousseau (born 1974)French track cyclist
Michel Rousseau (1936–2016)French racing cyclist
Bobby Rousseau (1940–2025)Canadian ice hockey player

People named Rousseau with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Rousseau

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.