Rommel
Rommel was given to 20 boys in 2025, #5,006 among boys’ names; 1,519 Americans have been recorded with it since 1943 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,420 Americans named Rommel and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (93% of everyone recorded); the median is 32 years old and half are between 17 and 47.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rommel by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Rommel mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Rommel is “a male given name of chiefly Latin American and Philippine usage.” Its etymology gives the sense “to rumble” (rommelen).
From the Dutch surname, from rommelen (“to rumble”). Also a spelling variant of Rummel.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Rommel?
#5,006 among boys’ names, 2025
Rommel fell from #3,496 in 2015 to #5,006 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 16.7 to 11.7 per million.
36 babies in 2008, the peak
Rommel peaked in 2008, when 36 boys were given it, #3,205 among boys’ names. The 20 births of 2025 are 56% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 20 | #5,006 | 11.7 |
| 2024 | 16 | #5,847 | 9.3 |
| 2023 | 16 | #5,865 | 9.4 |
| 2022 | 24 | #4,404 | 13.7 |
| 2021 | 19 | #5,070 | 10.9 |
| 2020 | 25 | #4,117 | 14.5 |
| 2019 | 14 | #6,339 | 7.8 |
| 2018 | 24 | #4,318 | 13.2 |
| 2017 | 18 | #5,259 | 9.7 |
| 2016 | 20 | #4,906 | 10.5 |
Every recorded year (75)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 32 | #3,496 | 16.7 |
| 2014 | 17 | #5,439 | 8.9 |
| 2013 | 29 | #3,640 | 15.3 |
| 2012 | 29 | #3,692 | 15.3 |
| 2011 | 15 | #5,889 | 7.9 |
| 2010 | 20 | #4,803 | 10.4 |
| 2009 | 23 | #4,399 | 11.6 |
| 2008 | 36 | #3,205 | 17.6 |
| 2007 | 30 | #3,574 | 14.5 |
| 2006 | 26 | #3,867 | 12.7 |
| 2005 | 34 | #3,068 | 17.0 |
| 2004 | 28 | #3,434 | 14.1 |
| 2003 | 22 | #3,943 | 11.1 |
| 2002 | 20 | #4,148 | 10.3 |
| 2001 | 32 | #2,912 | 16.5 |
| 2000 | 21 | #3,880 | 10.7 |
| 1999 | 13 | #5,253 | 6.8 |
| 1998 | 17 | #4,158 | 8.9 |
| 1997 | 31 | #2,596 | 16.4 |
| 1996 | 15 | #4,345 | 7.9 |
| 1995 | 15 | #4,224 | 7.9 |
| 1994 | 26 | #2,827 | 13.5 |
| 1993 | 22 | #3,120 | 11.2 |
| 1992 | 28 | #2,582 | 14.0 |
| 1991 | 35 | #2,124 | 17.3 |
| 1990 | 26 | #2,602 | 12.7 |
| 1989 | 23 | #2,756 | 11.5 |
| 1988 | 18 | #3,048 | 9.4 |
| 1987 | 23 | #2,450 | 12.3 |
| 1986 | 29 | #2,047 | 15.7 |
| 1985 | 19 | #2,686 | 10.3 |
| 1984 | 25 | #2,145 | 13.9 |
| 1983 | 24 | #2,197 | 13.4 |
| 1982 | 34 | #1,728 | 18.7 |
| 1981 | 23 | #2,256 | 12.8 |
| 1980 | 26 | #2,102 | 14.6 |
| 1979 | 30 | #1,861 | 17.4 |
| 1978 | 25 | #2,006 | 15.2 |
| 1977 | 23 | #2,117 | 14.0 |
| 1976 | 34 | #1,598 | 21.7 |
| 1975 | 23 | #2,051 | 14.7 |
| 1974 | 27 | #1,784 | 17.2 |
| 1973 | 31 | #1,581 | 19.9 |
| 1972 | 26 | #1,758 | 16.0 |
| 1971 | 22 | #1,976 | 12.4 |
| 1970 | 23 | #1,882 | 12.4 |
| 1969 | 14 | #2,395 | 7.8 |
| 1968 | 9 | #3,059 | 5.2 |
| 1967 | 11 | #2,579 | 6.3 |
| 1966 | 5 | #4,414 | 2.8 |
| 1965 | 11 | #2,590 | 5.9 |
| 1964 | 11 | #2,629 | 5.5 |
| 1963 | 18 | #1,947 | 8.9 |
| 1962 | 13 | #2,343 | 6.3 |
| 1961 | 5 | #4,549 | 2.4 |
| 1960 | 10 | #2,836 | 4.7 |
| 1959 | 12 | #2,507 | 5.6 |
| 1958 | 9 | #2,992 | 4.2 |
| 1956 | 5 | #4,366 | 2.4 |
| 1955 | 9 | #2,941 | 4.4 |
| 1954 | 5 | #4,274 | 2.5 |
| 1953 | 7 | #3,378 | 3.5 |
| 1952 | 8 | #3,058 | 4.1 |
| 1951 | 6 | #3,653 | 3.2 |
| 1943 | 5 | #3,952 | 3.5 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Rommel a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Rommel has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 75 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Rommel: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rommel, and how old are they?
1,420 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 93% of the 1,519 Americans ever recorded as Rommel. The median Rommel alive today is 32 years old; half are between 17 and 47.
The 2020 Census counted 3,783 people named Rommel (9 women and girls, 3,774 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,333 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.8 times 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 | 2 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 85 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 304 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 365 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 390 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 272 |
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 Rommel born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 8 | #2,043 | 0.4× |
Where Rommel is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Rommel is most over-represented in California: since 1943 it was given 2.4 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 Rommel 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 5,643 babies since 1880, Rommel is the third most given (27% of them). In 2025 it was given to 20 of their 82 babies (24%), again the third 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 Rommel
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
| Name | Recorded | 1940-2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Dimitrios | 2,682 | |
| Athanasios | 1,284 | |
| Vasilios | 1,500 | |
| Jamieson | 1,720 | |
| Karlos | 2,018 | |
| Panagiotis | 1,320 |
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 Rommel and names like it
- Compare Rommel and RomelBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sRommel peaked in 2008.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rommel since 1910.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Rommel.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Rommel alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with RMost given first.