Reinhard
A masculine German name meaning "brave counsel" or "wise ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 150 living Americans carry the first name Reinhard. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Reinhard today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Reinhard births was 1916 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Reinhard. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Reinhard is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Reinhards were born before 1970.
People living today
150
~ 1 in 2,285,029 Americans
Peak year
1916
17 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
1998 SSA rank
#10,948
Tracked since 1895
Census
Reinhard in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 899 people with the first name Reinhard, which placed it at #13,432 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#13,432
National first-name rank
People counted
899
899 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Reinhard
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reinhard is White at 89.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (3.3%) and Black (2.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Reinhard described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Reinhard at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.5% · 805
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.3% · 30
- Black or African American2.4% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 22
- Two or more races2.1% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.1% · 1
Popularity
Reinhard: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Reinhard from the 1890s through to the 1990s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1910s, with 101 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1910s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Reinhard by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Reinhard during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Reinhards live
Origin
Meaning and history of Reinhard
The given name Reinhard has its origins in the Germanic languages and cultures of medieval Europe. It is a compound name derived from the Old German words "ragin" meaning "counsel" and "hart" meaning "brave" or "hardy". The name translates roughly to "brave counsel" or "hardy adviser".
Reinhard was particularly common in the areas of modern-day Germany, Austria, and parts of Switzerland during the Middle Ages. Variations in spelling included Reinhart, Reinhardus, and Reinhard. The name shares linguistic roots with the Frankish name Reginhard and the Old Norse name Reginhardr.
One of the earliest known references to the name Reinhard dates back to the 8th century in the Codex Sangallensis, a Latin manuscript from the monastery of St. Gallen in present-day Switzerland. The text mentions a monk named Reinhard who was a scribe and copyist.
In the 11th century, the name appears in the historical records of the Holy Roman Empire. Reinhard von Sponheim (c. 1010 - 1089) was a prominent German nobleman and Count Palatine of the Rhine region. He played a significant role in the Investiture Controversy between the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor.
Another notable figure was Reinhard of Halberstadt (c. 1060 - 1125), a German bishop and chronicler who wrote an important historical text known as the "Annals of Reinhard of Halberstadt".
During the Renaissance period, Reinhard Lorichius (1500 - 1564) was a German humanist scholar, poet, and teacher who made contributions to the study of classical literature.
In the 17th century, Reinhard Zesen (1619 - 1689) was a German author and linguist who advocated for reforms to the German language and orthography.
Moving forward to the 19th century, Reinhard Kekulé (1839 - 1911) was a German chemist who is best known for determining the ring structure of benzene, a crucial breakthrough in organic chemistry.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals named Reinhard throughout history, spanning various fields such as religion, politics, literature, and science.
People
Reinhard + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Reinhard as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Reinhard: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Reinhard?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 150 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Reinhard going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 2,285,029 US residents.
Is Reinhard a common name?
We classify Reinhard as "Very Rare". It ranks above 70.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 435 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Reinhard most popular?
The single biggest year for Reinhard was 1916, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Reinhard is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Reinhard in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 899 people with the name Reinhard, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,432 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Reinhard in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Reinhard?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Reinhard appears almost entirely male. Of the 899 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Reinhard?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reinhard is White at 89.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (3.3%) and Black (2.4%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Reinhard most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Reinhard in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.5% (805 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Reinhard in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Reinhard a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Reinhard in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Reinhard still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Reinhard in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Reinhard can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Reinhard as a first name?
Find out how many people have the name Reinhard on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.