Roan

Meaning & origin●

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Roan is also recorded as 5 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish given name9.4K records spelled Roan5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Philippines, United States, Mexico, Peru

  Languages: Spanish, Italian

  Also written Ro-An, Roán

• French given name4.2K records spelled Roan3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in France, Philippines, United States, Belgium

  Languages: French, Catalan

  Also written Roãn

• a separate given name1.0K records spelled Roan2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, Netherlands

  Also written Roán

• Indonesian given name979 records spelled Roan3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Philippines, Indonesia, United States, Netherlands

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Ro-An

• Khmer given name897 records spelled Roan2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Philippines, United States, Netherlands, Syria

  Also written Roãn

50 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Roan is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, from Rouen, Normandy; first attested William de Rotomago 1148 Winton (Ha)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In Irish, In Ireland a variant of Rowan especially around Athlone; the English name Roan is derived from the French town Rouen

  as a name·The Surnames of Ireland

• In Khmer, quick, so rapid that the mo­ tion cannot be stopped; a. very quickly. sudden pain, sudden s ic k n e s s (often followed by death). rapid, in a hurry, as soon as possible. § to hurry up. o uCfUinWnS a rapid walk or gait. ° to rush somewhere. nsms

  as a word·Headley, Cambodian-English Dictionary, Volume II (ម-អ)

• In Occitan, Rouen (a city in France)

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

• In Spanish, inflection of roer:

  as a word·kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 50 years between 1926–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Harold Mortimerb. 1965USnot in their usual nameAmerican musical theater professor
• Roan Johnsonb. 1974ITItalian writer and screenwriter
• Roan Carneirob. 1978BRBrazilian martial artist
• Roan Curtisb. 1997CACanadian actress
• Roan Pronkb. 2001NLDutch musicalactor
• Roan Steeleb. 2001Australian rules footballer
• Roan Wilsonb. 2002CRCosta Rican footballer
• Roan Koningsb. 2003NLDutch cyclist
• Deborah SmithUSnot in their usual nameUS arachnologist
• Roan FraserZAResearcher

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 364 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Roan?

We estimate roughly 4.8 thousand people bear Roan (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.

In which country does Roan have the most bearers?

We estimate about 2.1 thousand people bear Roan in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled roan.

Where is Roan most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Roan is densest in Albania — about 1 in 2.1 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Roan compared with other names?

In the Netherlands, Roan is the 745th most common given name of 134,847 given names recorded there.

Is Roan a male or female name?

Roan is a male name in our records. Opposite-gender entries fall within the cross-gender noise we measure in the source data, so we don't report them as usage.

What does the name Roan mean?

Recorded meaning: (i) person from Rouen, France; (ii) different form of Ruane