Ronald

Where Ronald comes from

Anglicized from Scottish Gaelic Raghnall, itself derived from Old Norse Rǫgnvaldr, from rǫgn (“advice”) + valdr (“power”), later partly merged with the Continental Germanic equivalent Reynold.
— Wiktionary's entry for Ronald
  • Germanic
  • 2 syllables
Along the way
  1. 1857
    Ronald Ross born
    British doctor, Nobel laureate, writer, and artist
  2. 1883
    First appearance
    #799 among boys, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  3. 1911
    Ronald Reagan born
    president of the United States from 1981 to 1989 and actor
  4. 1943
    Peak, #9
    29,239 babies named Ronald — more than any year before or since.
  5. 1969
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #29.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from the Germanic languages.
Namesakes
  • Ronald Reagan · president of the United States from 1981 to 1989 and actor, 1911–2004
  • Ronald Ross · British doctor, Nobel laureate, writer, and artist, 1857–1932
  • Ronald Koeman · Dutch football coach and former football player, born 1963
  • Ronald Coase · British economist and Nobel laureate, 1910–2013
  • Ronald Fisher · British statistician, evolutionary biologist and geneticist, 1890–1962

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.