Rowdy is an English word name meaning "boisterous" or "rough and noisy", originally an American slang term for a rough backwoodsman. As a first name it has a cowboy flavor, helped by Clint Eastwood's character Rowdy Yates in the TV western Rawhide and the wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper. Rowdy climbed from number 1637 in 2000 into the US top 1000 in 2024 and ranks number 941 among boys' names in 2025.