Roman

Where Roman comes from

From Old French Romain, from Latin Rōmānus. By surface analysis, Rom(e) + -an. Doublet of Romano. Displaced native Romish. * In reference to the Byzantine Empire, via the Byzantine Greek endonym Ῥωμαῖος (Rhōmaîos).
— Wiktionary's entry for Roman
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1882
    First appearance
    #754 among boys, 7 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1933
    Roman Polanski born
    French-Polish filmmaker
  3. 1934
    Roman Herzog born
    former President of the Federal Republic of Germany
  4. 2025
    Peak, #42
    6,162 babies named Roman — more than any year before or since.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Latin recently borrowed from continental Europe.
Namesakes
  • Roman Polanski · French-Polish filmmaker, born 1933
  • Roman Herzog · former President of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1934–2017
  • Roman Jakobson · Russian linguist, 1896–1982
  • Roman Abramovich · Russian-Israeli oligarch and politician, born 1966
  • Roman Pavlyuchenko · Russian footballer, born 1981

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.