Variant of Ronald, from Old Norse Rögnvaldr meaning 'ruler's counsel.'
Ronal is a variant spelling of Ronald, a name with Norse roots that came to the British Isles via the Viking settlements of Scotland and northern England. It derives from the Old Norse Rögnvaldr, composed of 'regin' (meaning 'advice,' 'decision,' or 'the divine') and 'valdr' (meaning 'ruler' or 'wielder of power'), yielding a name that translates roughly as 'wise ruler' or 'he who rules with divine counsel.' The name was borne by several early Norse jarls and earls of Orkney, and became thoroughly naturalised in Scotland, where Ronald and its Gaelic cognate Raghnall remained common for centuries.
Ronald entered the wider English-speaking world through Scottish and Irish emigration, and by the twentieth century had become a thoroughly mainstream name across the Anglosphere. Ronald Reagan, the fortieth president of the United States, gave the name strong political associations in the 1980s; Ronaldo, its Portuguese and Spanish variant, has been one of the most recognisable names in world football through Ronaldo de Assis Moreira and Cristiano Ronaldo. The single-'d' spelling Ronal appears across Spanish-speaking Latin America, parts of Southern Europe, and South Asia, where the name was adopted through British colonial influence and then evolved according to local phonetic patterns.
The Ronal spelling has a slightly streamlined quality — the doubled consonant removed, the name made a touch more sleek and international. It occupies the space between familiar and distinctive: every English speaker will recognise it, but the altered spelling signals a specific cultural or family origin. It is a name that travels well and carries its ancient meaning — wise, decisive, quietly authoritative — with unpretentious dignity.