Given name & surname
Rooney
“a red-haired man”
Rooney is used as a given name and a surname. One interpretation is “a red-haired man.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One interpretation is “a red-haired man.”
How it developed
From Irish Ó Ruanaidh (“descendant of a person named Champion”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1943. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Rooney through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 1,529
- 671 boys · 858 girls
- Most popular year
- 2024
- 141 babies
- 2025
- 111
- #2,235 for girls · #3,927 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +49%
- Rising
Boys, girls and both
The balance of boys and girls given this name has shifted over time. Recent births are 25% boys.
Where it’s given
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 83 U.S. birth records for girls, ranking No. 2,235 among girls’ names. Average annual use for girls was 50.9% higher in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. It also appeared in 28 birth records for boys in 2025. In 2025, New York had the largest reported state-level birth count for girls with this name (9). Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 803 as a first name in 2020; 16,309 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Rooney’s family of names
Rooney has a related form in Roon. Rooney has a related form in Roone. Rooney has a related form in Roonea.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 7
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 Rooney
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Rooney, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Roslin
“a little red-haired boy”
>99% girls
Orla
“the golden queen”
>99% girls
Melrose
“bare, barren”
>99% girls
Imogen
“a maiden” · “one who is innocent and pure”
>99% girls
Oona
“one who is pure; chaste”
>99% girls
Finley
“a fair-haired hero”
46% boys · 54% girls
Dailey
“of the assembly”
4% boys · 96% girls
Kinley
Kinley is a feminine given name from Scottish Gaelic.
1% boys · 99% girls