In fact, the most widely admitted date for the end of the
western roman empire is 476, when
Romulus Augustulus was deposed by the barbaric mercenay
Odoacer.
All the other "emperors" are, as you can guess from their names,
Germanic leaders (simple soldiers like Odoacer, or magnificient kings such as the
Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great). They tried to preserve an imperial power in Rome, but they failed. The first real western emperor after Augustulus was the Frank king
Charlemagne (official coronation by the Pope in 800 A.D.), who unified all of western
Europe under his rule, thereby laying the foundation for virtually all of European history to date.
Note 1 : The german word "
Kaiser" also comes from "Caesar".
Note 2 : All of this applies only to the western empire.
The Byzantine Empire (395) managed to survive until
Constantinople was taken by the Turks in 1453.