Roel
Roel was given to 54 boys in 2025, #2,510 among boys’ names; 4,711 Americans have been recorded with it since 1926 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 4,150 Americans named Roel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (88% of everyone recorded); the median is 37 years old and half are between 20 and 53.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Roel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Roel mean?
Wiktionary, Dutch section
Roel is “a male given name”
Shortened from Roelof, Roeland and other names starting with Roel-.
Meaning: Wiktionary, Dutch section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Roel?
#2,510 among boys’ names, 2025
Roel rose from #2,948 in 2015 to #2,510 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 20.9 to 31.6 per million.
83 babies in 2000, the peak
Roel peaked in 2000, when 83 boys were given it, #1,480 among boys’ names. The 54 births of 2025 are 65% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 54 | #2,510 | 31.6 |
| 2024 | 64 | #2,257 | 37.1 |
| 2023 | 60 | #2,336 | 35.1 |
| 2022 | 49 | #2,706 | 28.1 |
| 2021 | 41 | #3,015 | 23.4 |
| 2020 | 46 | #2,720 | 26.7 |
| 2019 | 37 | #3,178 | 20.6 |
| 2018 | 53 | #2,465 | 29.2 |
| 2017 | 50 | #2,559 | 27.0 |
| 2016 | 37 | #3,149 | 19.5 |
Every recorded year (96)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 40 | #2,948 | 20.9 |
| 2014 | 63 | #2,171 | 32.8 |
| 2013 | 49 | #2,516 | 25.9 |
| 2012 | 55 | #2,348 | 29.0 |
| 2011 | 66 | #2,048 | 34.8 |
| 2010 | 60 | #2,203 | 31.3 |
| 2009 | 54 | #2,395 | 27.2 |
| 2008 | 58 | #2,284 | 28.4 |
| 2007 | 67 | #2,064 | 32.3 |
| 2006 | 60 | #2,167 | 29.2 |
| 2005 | 58 | #2,120 | 29.0 |
| 2004 | 65 | #1,900 | 32.7 |
| 2003 | 68 | #1,773 | 34.4 |
| 2002 | 65 | #1,782 | 33.5 |
| 2001 | 59 | #1,884 | 30.4 |
| 2000 | 83 | #1,480 | 42.3 |
| 1999 | 75 | #1,511 | 39.1 |
| 1998 | 66 | #1,595 | 34.5 |
| 1997 | 58 | #1,700 | 30.8 |
| 1996 | 54 | #1,731 | 28.5 |
| 1995 | 63 | #1,519 | 33.1 |
| 1994 | 71 | #1,392 | 36.7 |
| 1993 | 67 | #1,422 | 34.2 |
| 1992 | 58 | #1,537 | 29.0 |
| 1991 | 50 | #1,663 | 24.7 |
| 1990 | 62 | #1,427 | 30.2 |
| 1989 | 65 | #1,364 | 32.5 |
| 1988 | 65 | #1,278 | 34.0 |
| 1987 | 67 | #1,186 | 35.9 |
| 1986 | 63 | #1,212 | 34.2 |
| 1985 | 55 | #1,300 | 29.8 |
| 1984 | 75 | #1,029 | 41.6 |
| 1983 | 76 | #1,020 | 42.4 |
| 1982 | 76 | #1,045 | 41.9 |
| 1981 | 74 | #1,066 | 41.3 |
| 1980 | 82 | #1,002 | 46.0 |
| 1979 | 58 | #1,205 | 33.7 |
| 1978 | 69 | #1,055 | 42.0 |
| 1977 | 61 | #1,119 | 37.1 |
| 1976 | 64 | #1,046 | 40.8 |
| 1975 | 77 | #937 | 49.3 |
| 1974 | 74 | #951 | 47.1 |
| 1973 | 70 | #969 | 44.9 |
| 1972 | 56 | #1,094 | 34.5 |
| 1971 | 68 | #988 | 38.5 |
| 1970 | 66 | #1,003 | 35.5 |
| 1969 | 76 | #879 | 42.5 |
| 1968 | 53 | #1,023 | 30.5 |
| 1967 | 61 | #930 | 35.0 |
| 1966 | 52 | #1,013 | 29.2 |
| 1965 | 66 | #917 | 35.5 |
| 1964 | 69 | #920 | 34.6 |
| 1963 | 42 | #1,212 | 20.7 |
| 1962 | 65 | #944 | 31.4 |
| 1961 | 56 | #1,049 | 26.4 |
| 1960 | 68 | #921 | 31.9 |
| 1959 | 55 | #1,043 | 25.8 |
| 1958 | 44 | #1,166 | 20.7 |
| 1957 | 42 | #1,211 | 19.5 |
| 1956 | 53 | #1,041 | 25.1 |
| 1955 | 35 | #1,292 | 17.0 |
| 1954 | 45 | #1,119 | 22.1 |
| 1953 | 39 | #1,210 | 19.8 |
| 1952 | 40 | #1,180 | 20.6 |
| 1951 | 23 | #1,591 | 12.2 |
| 1950 | 33 | #1,268 | 18.4 |
| 1949 | 30 | #1,341 | 16.9 |
| 1948 | 23 | #1,552 | 13.1 |
| 1947 | 24 | #1,546 | 13.1 |
| 1946 | 19 | #1,681 | 11.7 |
| 1945 | 14 | #1,915 | 10.4 |
| 1944 | 15 | #1,871 | 11.0 |
| 1943 | 14 | #2,056 | 9.8 |
| 1942 | 13 | #2,125 | 9.4 |
| 1941 | 8 | #2,840 | 6.5 |
| 1940 | 23 | #1,427 | 19.8 |
| 1938 | 7 | #3,116 | 6.3 |
| 1937 | 6 | #3,464 | 5.6 |
| 1936 | 9 | #2,587 | 8.7 |
| 1935 | 8 | #2,902 | 7.7 |
| 1934 | 8 | #2,915 | 7.7 |
| 1933 | 5 | #4,057 | 5.0 |
| 1932 | 5 | #4,188 | 4.8 |
| 1931 | 6 | #3,680 | 5.8 |
| 1930 | 5 | #4,453 | 4.6 |
| 1926 | 6 | #4,101 | 5.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Roel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Roel has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 96 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Roel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Roel, and how old are they?
4,150 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 88% of the 4,711 Americans ever recorded as Roel. The median Roel alive today is 37 years old; half are between 20 and 53.
The 2020 Census counted 4,768 people named Roel (19 women and girls, 4,749 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 3,996 born in the U.S. The Census count is 19% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 38 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 556 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 931 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 988 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 638 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Roel born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 33 | #824 | 9.3× |
Where Roel is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Roel is most over-represented in Texas: since 1926 it was given 9.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Roel with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 4 names spelled alike, given to 29,330 babies since 1880, Roel is the second most given (16% of them). In 2025 it was given to 54 of their 826 babies (6.5%), again the second most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Roel
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Roel and names like it
- Compare Roel and RoyalBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sRoel peaked in 2000.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Roel since 1910.
- Dutch namesWiktionary’s origin for Roel: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2000The year the most babies were named Roel.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Roel alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with RMost given first.