Given name & surname · also Old Norse
Roald
“praise, fame”·“ruler, chieftain”
Roald is a masculine given name from Old Norse, ultimately from Proto-Germanic. It is used in Norwegian Nynorsk.
Meaning & origin
What it means
Roald is built from elements meaning “praise, fame” and “ruler, chieftain”.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is Old Norse.
How it developed
Its Old Norse formation brings together hróðr (“fame”) and valdr (“ruler”).
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1912. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Roald through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 189
- 189 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1928
- 18 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 8 in 1960. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 18 in 1928. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 330 as a first name in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Roald’s family of names
Roald has a related form in Roal. In Norwegian Nynorsk usage, Roald has a related form in Roalde. In Norwegian Nynorsk usage, Roald has a related form in Vrold.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 4
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 1
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Roald
- Roald AmundsenNorwegian explorer; first person to reach the South Pole (1872–1928)
- Roald DahlBritish writer and poet (1916–1990)
- Roald HoffmannPolish-American Nobel laureate chemist and playwrightborn 1937
- Roald AasNorwegian speed skater and road and track cyclist (1928–2012)
- Roald LarsenNorwegian speed skater (1898–1959)
- Roald SagdeevRussian physicist (born 1932)
- Roald AmundsenNorwegian footballer (1913-1985)
- Roald JensenNorwegian footballer (1943–1987)
- Roald PoulsenDanish football manager (1950–2024)
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Appears in
Similar names
If you love Roald, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
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>99% boys
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“as solid as a stone” · “stone”
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99% boys · 1% girls
Björn
“bear”
>99% boys
Sven
“a youthful man; a lad”
>99% boys
Viggo
“battle”
>99% boys
Sigurd
“the protector of victory”
>99% boys