Who was the last Western Roman Emperor, deposed in 476 AD? (r. 475-476 AD)

The story behind the answer

Romulus Augustulus was the last Western Roman Emperor, ruling as a child puppet (475–476 AD) before being deposed by the Germanic general Odoacer. His fall in 476—when Odoacer sent the imperial regalia to the Eastern Emperor Zeno—symbolically marks the end of the Western Roman Empire, even as the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire continued.

To remember this, note the irony: “Romulus” was the legendary founder of Rome and “Augustus” the first emperor; “Augustulus” means “little Augustus,” fitting for a boy-emperor who closed the imperial line. Odoacer wasn’t an emperor but the deposer who ruled Italy. Julius Nepos, sometimes considered the last legitimate claimant, ruled from Dalmatia until 480 but not in Italy. Constantine VI was a much later Byzantine emperor.