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Greetings from the Academy of S. Gabriel!
You said that you'd traced your name, Ronald, back to a Norse <Rognu:ldr> meaning 'power' or 'powerful'. (Here <u:> is used for u-umlaut.) You asked whether <Rognu:ldr> was a name or just a word, and if it was a name, you wanted to know when it was used.
You may be slightly misremembering what you discovered, or your source may have been slightly off: the Old Norse name from which <Ronald> is derived is <Ro:gnvaldr> (where <o:> stands for an o-umlaut). This name was common in Norway from a very early date; in Iceland it didn't become common until the 14th century. In both places it appears in a variety of forms, of which <Ragnvaldr> and <Ragnaldr> are perhaps the most common. The closest we found to <Rognu:ldr> was an instance of <Rognalder> from 1336. [1, 2]
Forms like <Ro:gnvaldr> and <Ragnvaldr> are found in the earliest Norse literature and at least as late as the 15th century; they would be appropriate in Norway and Iceland from perhaps the 11th century to about 1500. The forms without the <v> in the second syllable, like <Ragnaldr> and <Rognaldr>, appear sometime around 1300 and remain in use in Norway through the end of our period.
<Ro:gnvaldr> is definitely a name and not a word. For that reason it's a bit misleading to speak of its 'meaning'. It is much more accurate to say that the name element <-valdr> is closely related to the Old Icelandic word <valdr> 'ruler'. The antecedents of <Ro:gn-> are less clear. It is probably from a Germanic root meaning 'advice, counsel', but it may be related to Old Norse <ro:gn> 'gods'. [1] The compound itself has no meaning. [3]
You will probably also want to have a byname, a second name that distinguishes you from others with the same given name. (If you choose to register your SCA name with the College of Arms, you will have to have one.) The most common kind of Norse byname was the patronymic, which tells who your father was; <Ro:gnvaldr Ormsson> 'Ronald the son of Orm' is a typical example. A patronymic would be appropriate at any time when the given name was in use.
Simple descriptive nicknames were also used, e.g., <Ro:gnvaldrr hinn
Gamli> 'Ronald the Old'. Later these bynames tended to lose the
definite article; <Rognalder Gamle> would be a likely 14th century
form. From the 14th century onward we also find quite a few bynames
indicating place of residence; <Rognalder i Sundby> 'Ronald who lives
at Sundby' would be an example of this type. We will be happy to
work with you to find a suitable byname.
Arval Benicoeur and Evan da Collaureo also contributed to this letter. We hope that it has been useful and that we can continue to assist you.
For the Academy,
Talan Gwynek
[1] Fellows Jensen, Gillian, _Scandinavian Personal Names in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire_ (Copenhagen: 1968).
[2] Lind, E.H., _Norsk-Isla:ndska Dopnamn ock Fingerade Namn fra*n Medeltiden_ (Uppsala: 1905-1915). (The <a:> is an a-umlaut, and the <a*> is an a-ring, an <a> with a small circle directly over it.)
[3] The ancient precursors of the Old Norse names may have been used simultaneously as personal names and as meaningful descriptions of the person named. By historical times, however, any such practice had long since disappeared. Doubtless the relationship with the word <valdr> was as apparent to a 12th century Norseman as the connection between the name <Hope> and the word <hope> is to us, but a child was far more likely to have been named <Ro:gnvaldr> after a relative or other admired personage than because of the connotation 'ruler'.