Roland is a Germanic name composed of hrod, "fame", and land, "land", so it means "famous throughout the land". The Song of Roland, the medieval epic about Charlemagne's knight who died holding the pass at Roncevaux, made it one of the great heroic names of Europe. Roland has been in the US top 1000 every year since 2000, when it ranked number 690, peaked at number 530 in 2017 and ranks number 608 in 2025.