# Rambo (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/rambo/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 7,154 |
| US rank (2010) | 4,916 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 43,157 people |
| Change since 2000 | +0.8% (7,096 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈɹæmbəʊ/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

* The name "Rambo" is of unknown origin. It can be dated back to the 17th-century Swedish immigrant Peter Gunnarsson Rambo. According to folk legend it is derived from the mountain Ramberget ("Raven’s Hill") in Gothenburg, whence the Swedish immigrants to Delaware originated in the 17th century. * "Rambo" is also the name of an old farm in Vestfold county, Norway ("Rambøe" 1664, "Ramboe" 1723) - and about 65 people in Norway have Rambo as a family name. The Old Norse form of the name might have been *Hrafnabú. The first element is then the genitive plurals of hrafn m. 'raven', and the last element is bú n. 'farm'. The name was brought to the US by Norwegian settlers. * "Rambo" became widely known after John Rambo, a fictional Vietnam War veteran and protagonist of the film series Rambo. See also Japanese 乱暴(らんぼー) (ranbō, “violence; violent; reckless; rude; rough; unreasonable”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Rambo in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 81% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 12% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 3.6% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 1.1% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.5% |
| Two or more races | 1.9% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Rambo in the United States.

## People named Rambo

- Dack Rambo, American actor (1941–1994)
- John Rambo, American athletics competitor (1943–2022)

## Similar surnames

Rambeau, Rainbow, Rumph, Rempe, Rumpf.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.