Roxanne

What does the name Roxanne mean?

Roxanne is a spelling of Roxane, the French form of the Greek Rhōxanē. This was the name of Alexander the Great's Bactrian wife Roxana, and it comes from an Old Persian or Bactrian word for "bright, shining", related to modern Persian rowshan, "light, bright". The French spelling became familiar through Roxane in Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac (1897). Roxanne was most popular in the US in the 1950s.

Ῥωξάνη (Ancient Greek, “Rhōxanē”)*rauxšnā (Old Persian, “bright, shining (reconstructed)”)

How sure is this? Probable. The Iranian source word is reconstructed, not directly recorded as a name.

Related names: Roxane, Roxana, Roxy, Roxanna.

See also: Persian names, names that mean light.

Nicknames for Roxanne

The usual nicknames for Roxanne are Roxie and Roxy. Some parents skip the long form: for every 100 girls named Roxanne in the last five years, 33 were named Roxy, against 25 twenty years earlier.

Nicknames reviewed by our editors; counts are girls given the nickname as their legal first name. Nobody records how many Roxannes go by each one.

Roxanne popularity since 1880

A few boys are given the name too: 55 since 1956.

How popular is Roxanne, counting every spelling?

Roxanne is the most common spelling of a name family that ranked #1,181 for girls in 2025 once every spelling is counted together, compared with #1,315 for Roxanne on its own. Together these spellings went to 182 girls in 2025.

Spellings count together when they sound the same in American English and are used for the same sex; nicknames and forms that sound different (such as Theo and Theodore) are kept apart. How we group spellings.

How many kids will share the name Roxanne?

170 of the 3,606,400 babies born in the US in 2025 were named Roxanne (0.05 per 1,000 births). For a girl named Roxanne born in 2025, the chance that another child with the same name is in a class of 20 children the same age is under 1 in 50. If every grade liked the name as much as the 2025 babies do, only about one elementary school in 49 (of 430 pupils) would have a child named Roxanne.

Shares of all registered births (NCHS); classes assumed to be children born the same year. How we estimate this.

How old are people named Roxanne?

About 52,200 people born in the US named Roxanne are alive today, with a median age of 57; half are between 40 and 67. That makes Roxanne a name most people associate with older generations.

Babies given the name each year (SSA) times the share of that birth year still alive (SSA life tables). Counts people born in the US only. Method.

Roxanne by state

How common Roxanne was among girls born in each state in 2021–2025. It is notably more common than nationally in Washington (2.0×), California (1.7×), Arizona (1.6×). In 29 states fewer than five girls a year got the name, too few for SSA to publish, so those states show as zero.

Names with a similar history

These names rose and fell in step with Roxanne: their share of US girls followed the most similar curve since 1880. If you like Roxanne, they share its era and feel.

• Patrice
• Denise
• Valerie
• Toni
• Marta
• Melody

Questions about the name Roxanne