Roderick

The name means “famous ruler,” from the Old German elements hruod, meaning “fame,” and rih, meaning “ruler” or “king.” It was used among the Visigoths and was borne by their last king, the Gothic *Hroþireiks, also known by the Spanish form Rodrigo, who died fighting the Muslim invaders of Spain in the 8th century. The name had cognates in Old Norse and West Germanic, was brought to England by Scandinavian settlers and Normans, and later died out after the Middle Ages before being revived in the English-speaking world by Walter Scott’s 1811 poem The Vision of Don Roderick. It has also served as an Anglicized form of the Scottish name Ruaridh or the Welsh Rhydderch.

Roderick moved from #917 to #982 for boys between 2011 and 2012. Its highest annual birth count came in 1971, with 1,057 births.