Ronaldo

Ronaldo is a Portuguese form of Ronald, a name whose older roots combine ideas of counsel and rule. The English and Scottish Ronald developed from a Norse name, so Ronaldo carries a longer international history behind its familiar final o. Its connection with leadership belongs to those old name elements rather than to a prediction about the person who bears it.

Football has made Ronaldo especially recognizable worldwide through Brazilian player Ronaldo and Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo. Those associations can be meaningful to a sports-loving family, while the name remains a member of the older Ronald family. It can therefore work as a sporting tribute, a family honor name, or an established Portuguese choice in its own right.