Roscoe
About Roscoe
Fairly popular a hundred years ago but out of the US charts since 1978, the quirky yet edgy Roscoe feels very much in step with the trending o-ending boy names popular now, such as Milo, Hugo, and Otto. A Top 1000 choice in the UK (albeit near the latter end), it could make a cool alternative to Ross, Russell, Robert, and Ronan.
Originally a place and surname, Roscoe had its glory days in the 1880s, when it reached as high as Number 138, then gradually declined, possibly damaged by the scandals surrounding silent star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, and then the image it acquired thanks to Sheriff Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard. It ultimately comes from the Old Norse elements rá and skógr meaning "deer, roebuck" and "forest, woods" respectively.
Notable bearers of the name include US tennis player Roscoe Tanner and pickleball player Roscoe Bellamy, while in fiction, it was used in the series It's a Sin for the character Roscoe Babatunde. Another (Instagram) famous Roscoe was Roscoe Hamilton, racing driver Lewis Hamilton's dog.
Pronounced ROS-koh.
As of October 2026, Roscoe ranked #2248 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #117 in 1888, Nameberry popularity #12.
Editor: Pamela Redmond
Sources: US popularity data is from the Social Security Administration. Meanings and origins are from Nameberry's name references.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #2,016 | 71 | 37 |
| 2015 | #2,032 | 71 | 37 |
| 2016 | #2,161 | 64 | 33.7 |
| 2017 | #2,168 | 63 | 34 |
| 2018 | #1,851 | 82 | 45.2 |
| 2019 | #1,928 | 77 | 42.9 |
| 2020 | #1,863 | 80 | 46.3 |
| 2021 | #1,927 | 79 | 45.2 |
| 2022 | #1,933 | 81 | 46.4 |
| 2023 | #2,267 | 63 | 36.8 |
| 2024 | #2,180 | 67 | 38.9 |
| 2025 | #2,248 | 63 | 36.9 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Roscoe.
- Ira
- Orson
- Odis
- Jules
- Rafferty
- Montgomery
- Darcy
- Kit
- Winslow
- Bram
- Juno
- Boaz
- Asa
- Fraser
- Linus
- Albie
- Hawthorne
- Caspar
- Quincy
- Monty
Roscoe on lists
Famous Roscoes
- Roscoe Conkling "Fatty" Arbuckle
American silent film actor
- Roscoe Conkling
U.S. Senator from New York
- Roscoe Conkling McCulloch
U.S. Congressman from Ohio
- Roscoe Conkling Patterson
U.S. Senator from Missouri
- Roscoe Conkling Bruce
American educator
- Roscoe Tanner
American tennis player
- Roscoe Parrish
American NFL football player
- Roscoe Dash
stage name of Jeffery Johnson, Jr., American rapper
- Roscoe Lee Browne
American actor and director
- Roscoe Fulton "Rocky" Carroll
American actor
- Roscoe Gardner Bartlett
U.S. Congressman from Maryland
- Roscoe Mitchell
American jazz saxophonist
- (Nathan) Roscoe Pound
American legal scholar
- Roscoe Robinson
Jr., first black four,star general in the U.S.
- Roscoe Shelton
American singer
- Roscoe Hunter Orman
American actor
- Roscoe Clyde Miller
American baseball player
- Roscoe Karns
American actor
- Roscoe Holcomb
American bluegrass musician
- Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter
first director of the CIA
- Flynn Roscoe Farrar (b. 2014)
son of musician Sam Farrar of Phantom Planet
Roscoe in pop culture
- "Roscoe"
song by American band Midlake
- "Roscoe"
novel by William Kennedy
- Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles
popular California restaurant chain
- Roscoe
name of an important car in tv series, "Teen Wolf"