Roman
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- From Rome
- Origin
- Spanish
About the Name Roman
Roman descends through Late Latin Romanus meaning "a Roman" or "of Rome" — referring to the city of Rome and, by extension, the Roman Empire. The name was used in late antiquity for citizens of the empire and was carried forward into Christian usage by several saints — most notably Saint Roman the Melodist (6th-century Byzantine hymnographer, considered one of the great composers of liturgical poetry) and Saint Romanus of Antioch (early Christian martyr).
The name has been used continuously across Slavic, Romance-language, and Eastern Orthodox naming traditions for over a millennium. Notable bearers include Soviet film director Roman Polanski (the Polish-French filmmaker known for Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, and the controversial events of 1977), Roman emperors Romanus I, II, III, and IV (Byzantine), Russian-American novelist Roman Polanski, and contemporary actor Roman Reigns (American professional wrestler).
Roman's American surge is a 21st-century phenomenon, climbing from outside the US top 500 in 2000 to the top 75 by 2018. The name's appeal is its layered cosmopolitanism — Roman/imperial classical pedigree, Slavic-Eastern European recognition, two firm syllables, hard consonants, and the visual association with Rome's enduring cultural register. The name has been used for both boys and girls in modern American naming, though it remains predominantly male. Notable celebrity uptake includes Cate Blanchett's son Roman (born 2004) and Debra Messing's son Roman (born 2004), which contributed to the contemporary surge. Common nicknames Roman itself rarely shortens — Ro and the rare Romi occasionally appear. International forms include Romano (Italian masculine), Romain (French), Román (Spanish), Romans (Latvian), and Roman (Russian/Polish/German, identical).
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Roman
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Roman by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 6,162 boys named Roman (boy rank #42 that year).
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Roman Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Roman the strongest states are Nevada, Michigan, Hawaii.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada | #53 | 494 |
| 2 | Michigan | #55 | 1,531 |
| 3 | Hawaii | #56 | 171 |
| 4 | California | #57 | 6,594 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | #61 | 1,926 |
| 6 | Alaska | #64 | 130 |
| 7 | Arizona | #67 | 1,091 |
| 8 | Ohio | #67 | 1,744 |
| 9 | Washington | #69 | 1,011 |
| 10 | Idaho | #70 | 280 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #153 | 222 |
| 2 | District of Columbia | #138 | 78 |
| 3 | New Hampshire | #124 | 120 |
| 4 | Massachusetts | #121 | 592 |
| 5 | Georgia | #112 | 1,025 |
| 6 | Nebraska | #110 | 234 |
| 7 | Alabama | #108 | 493 |
| 8 | New Jersey | #107 | 845 |
| 9 | Maine | #107 | 96 |
| 10 | Connecticut | #106 | 352 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Roman in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Famous People Named Roman
1 notable figure from history and culture who share the name Roman.
- Roman Polanski — Director (1933)
Looking for names like Roman?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Roman to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Roman against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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