Roman

Locally spelled Роман in RU Russia, UA Ukraine.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records, and ○ marks a model's transliteration; click a spelling to open its page.

Attested across 8 languages in the etymology graph.

Names that people choosing a name often weigh against Roman, most often first. They share a style rather than an origin.

• Nero
• Julius
• Janus
• Caesar
• Octavian
• Minerva
• Tiberius
• Gaius
• Mars
• Zeus
• Cicero
• Aurelius

From the names suggested together in public name-advice forums, in English. A list of what people consider, not a measure of how common any name is.

Roman is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• a separate name11 spellings in the group

  Also written Róman, Román, RomÃn, Rō̜mān, Romań

• Estonian given name9 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Estonia, United States, Russia, India

  Languages: Estonian, Finnish

  Also written Röman, Román, Romañ, Rõmän, Rõmãn

• Norwegian given name10 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Denmark, Sweden, Russia

  Languages: Norwegian, Danish, Swedish

  Also written Román

• Lao given name51 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Laos, Thailand, Chile, United States

  Languages: Lao, Thai

  Also written รอหมาน, Román, ร่อหมาน, โรมัน, หร้อหมาน

• Hindi given name122 spellings in the group

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

  Languages: Hindi, English, Bangla

  Also written Raman, Ramana, Ramini, Ramon, Rumon

• Lithuanian given name5 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, United States

  Languages: Lithuanian, Latvian

  Also written Román, Röman

95 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.

Roman 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.

• Jacob ben Isaac Roman, Arabic-Turkish-Hebrew dictionary author

  as a name·Dicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…

• From Latin R6mdnus ‘Roman’. This was the baptismal name of St Boris.

  as a name·A concise dictionary of first names

• In English, Upright, as opposed to italic.

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

• In Swedish, Roman är ett latinskt namn bildat till Romanus ’romare’, vanligt i Östeuropa. En känd namnbärare var Roman den store (ca 1152–1205), storfurste av Kiev. En fransk form är Romain.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In Italian, forma dialetal setentrional, redução de Romano

  as a name·Dicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

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.

• Roman Jakobsonb. 1896USRussian linguist (1896–1982)
• Romain Garyb. 1914FRnot in their usual nameFrench writer and diplomat (1914–1980)
• Roman Polanskib. 1933FRFrench-Polish filmmaker (born 1933)
• Roman Abramovichb. 1966RURussian-Israeli oligarch and politician
• Roman Weidenfellerb. 1980DEGerman association football player (born 1980)
• Roman Pavlyuchenkob. 1981RURussian footballer
• Roman Shirokovb. 1981RURussian footballer (born 1981)
• Roman Adamovb. 1982RURussian football player
• Iscob. 1992ESnot in their usual nameSpanish association football player
• RomanusITnot in their usual namepope

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).

A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.

142 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 66 countries.

Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.

Where does the name Roman come from?

(i) Person from Rome or a pilgrim to Rome. (ii) From the Latin personal name Romanus, meaning 'person from Rome'. Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].

Is Roman a male or female name?

Roman is a male name. National registers that list it by sex list it as male: Poland (dane.gov.pl), United States (Census Bureau, 2020), Spain (INE) and France (INSEE, 2024), among others.

In which country does Roman have the most bearers?

Mondonomo estimates about 1.1 million people named Роман in Russia, more than in any other country we hold.

Where is Roman most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Roman is densest in Czechia — about 1 in 79 people — even though Russia holds more of our records for it.

What does the name Roman mean?

Recorded meaning: (i) Person from Rome or a pilgrim to Rome.

What are other forms of the name Roman?

In the etymology graph, Romain, Romeo and Romeu are forms of the same name in other languages.

How do you pronounce Roman?

It depends on the language: in Spanish /roman/; in Russian /rɐˈman/ (Wiktionary). Transcriptions are machine-generated except where a dictionary is named.

How common is the name Roman?

In Poland, the national register counted 174,380 people named Roman in 2026, about 1 in 220 residents.

How common is Roman compared with other names?

In Russia, Roman is the 37th most common given name of 472,143 given names recorded there.