Roland is also the name of the king in Stephen King's Eye of the Dragon. The poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" by Robert Browning inspired King to write the Dark Tower series.
Roland was one of the four main characters in "Extreme Ghostbusters" (1997), a sequel to the "Real Ghostbusters". In it, four teenagers (Roland, Garett, Eduardo and Kylee) bust ghosts, surprise surprise.
I think Roland is a nice name (although I prefer the Spanish form Rolando) but it's probably unusable here in the UK due to strong association with the TV puppet 'Roland Rat'.
Sweetheart Roland is a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It tells of a man who fell in love with a girl who had a witch for a stepmother. The evil stepmother witch chased them until she was killed by thorns. When Roland and the girl went to get married a stranger woman made him forget the girl. Eventually they married and lived happily ever after.
One of my favorite stories is that of Childe Rowland and Burd Helen, in which a boy ventures to the realm of the dark Elf-King to save his kidnapped sister.
A bearer of this name is Macauly Culkin character Roland from Saved!, a teen religious satire. In this movie, Roland is the sarcastic, cynical, atheistic, hilarious wheel-chair-bound brother of obnoxious, popular Jesus-freak Hilary Fay (Mandy Moore.)
Roland Fréart de Chambray (1606-76) was a French exponent of Classicism.
― Anonymous User 12/4/2011
I like it because it's never really been a very common name. The first time I recall hearing was when my parents were talking about the Stephen King character, Roland. I've liked the name ever since.
There is some controversy about the second name element: Land is neuter and cannot form male compounds; therefore many scholars analyze Roland as HROD-NAND with NAND "daring, brave" (the same element occurs in the name Ferdinand) and a later assimilation of the medial -dn- to -l-. [noted -ed]
My father (from Wigan) was born in September 1915. He was called Roland because his pregnant mother read the Longfellow poem, The Belfry of Bruges, with the line in it: 'I am Roland! I am Roland! There is victory in the land!.
― Anonymous User 9/30/2016
A famous bearer of this name is Roland Garros (1888-1918), a French aviator and a fighter pilot during WW1. His name was given to a tennis centre.