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Rudolf

Boys' name

Fame, renown + wolf, through Ruodolf

Rudolf has been given to 2,951 babies in the U.S. since 1882. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1927, with 82 recorded.

Babies named Rudolf, 2024

1 in 557,000

Rudolf over time, 1880–2025

Boys
025507510018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rudolf: meaning, origin, and history

Fame, renown + wolf, through Ruodolf

Czech, German and Middle High German

What Rudolf means

Rudolf belongs to the name family reached through Rudolf → Rudolf → Ruodolf. Its meaning is “fame, renown + wolf”.

Origin, language, and formation

Rudolf is used in English, Czech, Dutch, Estonian, German, Hungarian, Icelandic and Polish and additional language sections. Its origins include Czech, German and Middle High German.

Rudolf comes through Czech Rudolf and German Rudolf.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Rudolph, Rudolf and Ruodolf.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Czech, Rudolf is pronounced [ˈrudolf].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,951 boys were recorded with the name Rudolf between 1882 and 2024. Its highest annual count was 82 in 1927; its best national rank was #720 in 1927.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Rudolf?

Rudolf had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2024, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2024
1 in 557,000
6 of 3,342,801 births
Among boys only
1 in 287,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2024
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
386,177 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Rudolf sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2024 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 386,177 children born in 2024 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rudolf. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rudolfs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rudolf was born before 1939 — so the typical Rudolf is around 86 today.

Median birth year
1939
About 86 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
19.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
4.8%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
1,127
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 19.8% of all recorded uses (585).

Is Rudolf rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1927 (82)
Years since peak
98
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
27.7% average annual change
Best rank ever
#720
1927

Spellings of Rudolf

Rudolf is not the most common spelling — Rudolph is, with 54.6% against Rudolf's 3.0%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Rudolf is used

Across 1910–2025, Rudolf was most concentrated in New York — about 1 in 25,000 boys, against 1 in 87,667 across all states with data. It was least common in Wisconsin (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1New York1 in 25,000
  2. 2California1 in 100,000
  3. 3Illinois1 in 100,000
  4. 4New Jersey1 in 100,000
  5. 5Texas1 in 100,000
  6. 6Massachusetts1 in —
  7. 7Ohio1 in —
  8. 8Pennsylvania1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Rudolf has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Rudolf around the world

Where Rudolf ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2004–2025
    #4,275
    in 2025
  • France
    1904–2002
    #4,344
    in 2002
  • Norway
    1880–1977
    #524
    in 1977
  • Canada
    2000–2000
    #1,770
    in 2000
  • South Australia
    1952–2008
    #726
    in 2008

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Rudolf

People whose public names include Rudolf, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Rudolf in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Rudolf. Linked forms have their own page here.

RudiRudyRodolfoRudolfoRodolpheRufRuediRoelofRudolffRūdolfs

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Rudolf by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#720
1927
Peak year
1927
82 that year
First recorded
1882
Last recorded
2024
All-time count
2,951
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Rudolf

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

RudraRudolfoRuddyRolfRudiRudellWolfRudranshRudolphAdolfRudyRandolfRudhraRudvikRudolphoRudieRudrakshRudhvikRudhranRudyardRudisRuddieRudvedRudeus

Names with a curve like Rudolf

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Rudolf, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

AudreyMalvinMurryBurnellWeltonLambertLeamonNorwoodGarnettClovisJonnieBertrand

Sibling names for Rudolf

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Rudolf

Top names of 1927, Rudolf's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1927Boys' names starting with RUncommon Czech Boy Names