Ronald
Meaning of Ronald
Ronald, pronounced RAH-nuhld (/ˈrɒnəld/), is the standard English form of the Scottish-Gaelic Raghnall, itself an adaptation of the Old Norse Rögnvaldr, a compound of regin “decision, counsel” and valdr “ruler,” so that the underlying sense is often rendered “ruler advised by wisdom.” Introduced to Scotland during the Viking presence and subsequently diffused through Anglo-American migration, the name has carried an aura of disciplined governance reinforced in modern memory by President Ronald Reagan, yet it retains an every-day familiarity through cultural fixtures as varied as statistician Sir Ronald Fisher, the literary persona Ron Weasley, and the commercial mascot Ronald McDonald. In the United States the designation crested between the late 1940s and early 1960s—regularly occupying a position within the national Top 20—before entering a gradual secular decline that has stabilized in the low-500s by 2024, a trajectory characteristic of many once-dominant mid-century male names. Phonetically compact, historically Scandinavian, and culturally versatile, Ronald offers prospective parents a choice anchored in etymological gravitas while remaining accessible to contemporary English-speaking ears.
Pronunciation
British English
- Pronunced as RAH-nuhld (/ˈrɒn(ə)ld/)
American English
- Pronunced as RAH-nuld (/ˈrɒnəld/)
U.S. Popularity Chart
States Popularity Chart
Notable People Named Ronald
| Ronald Reagan was the 40th president of the United States and a key figure in the American conservative movement. |
| Ronald Evans was a NASA astronaut who orbited the Moon as Command Module Pilot on Apollo 17 without landing. |
| Ronald Perelman's net worth plummeted from $19.8 billion in 2018 to $1.9 billion in 2022 amid economic strains and debt from leveraged buyouts. |
| Ronald Acuña Jr. is a Venezuelan outfielder for the Atlanta Braves who won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 2018. |
| Ronald Lewis Graham was a prominent American mathematician who greatly advanced discrete mathematics and held leadership roles in major mathematical organizations with numerous honors. |
| Ronald Borek Kessler is an American journalist and author of 21 non-fiction books about the White House, Secret Service, FBI, and CIA. |
| Ronald Harry Coase was a British economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1991 and taught at the University of Chicago for much of his career. |
| Sir David Ronald Holmes served as a British colonial government official in Hong Kong from 1938. |
| Ronald Edmund Hutton is an English historian and University of Bristol professor renowned for his expertise in early modern Britain, folklore, and paganism. |
| Ronald Colman was a celebrated English actor who achieved Hollywood stardom and won an Academy Award for his role in "A Double Life." |
| Ronald DeFeo Jr. - Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr. was an American mass murderer convicted of killing his family in 1974, a case that inspired The Amityville Horror, and he died in 2021. |
| Ronald Erwin McNair was an American NASA astronaut and physicist who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. |
| Ronald Charles Speirs was a U.S. Army officer who served in World War II and the Korean War, commanded troops in key battles, governed Spandau Prison, and retired as a lieutenant colonel. |
| Ronald Lawrence Mallett is a University of Connecticut theoretical physicist renowned for his work on time travel. |
