Ric
Powerful leader or ruler, derived from the Germanic name Richard.
Name Census estimates that about 1,058 living Americans carry the first name Ric. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Ric today is around 57 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ric births was 1958 (55 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ric. 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.
People living today
1.1K
~ 1 in 323,964 Americans
Peak year
1958
55 babies that year
Average age
57
years old
2012 SSA rank
#9,518
Tracked since 1942
Census
Ric in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,877 people with the first name Ric, which placed it at #7,890 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
#7,890
National first-name rank
People counted
1.9K
1,877 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
64.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ric
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ric is White at 64.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.7%). 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 Ric 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 Ric at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White64.7% · 1,214
- Hispanic or Latino13.6% · 255
- Asian and Pacific Islander11.7% · 220
- Black or African American5.6% · 106
- Two or more races3.6% · 67
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 15
Popularity
Ric: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ric from the 1940s through to the 2010s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 386 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ric 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 Ric during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rics live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. California, Ohio, Michigan recorded the most babies named Ric, while Wisconsin, Washington, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 36 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ric
The name Ric has its roots in the Germanic language family, tracing back to the Old Norse word "ríkr" or the Old English word "rīce," both meaning "powerful" or "ruler." This name was prevalent across various Germanic tribes and cultures during the medieval period.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Ric can be found in the Icelandic sagas, where it was used as a shortened form of names like Ríkarðr (Richard) or Hrólfr (Rodolf). These sagas, written in Old Norse, date back to the 13th and 14th centuries.
In England, the name Ric gained prominence after the Norman Conquest of 1066, as it was a common nickname for the French name Richard. Richard I, also known as Richard the Lionheart (1157-1199), was a famous English king who bore this name.
Another notable figure was Ric Petit, a 14th-century French architect who worked on the construction of the Louvre Palace in Paris. He was known for his innovative architectural techniques and designs.
During the Renaissance period, Ric became a popular name among Italian families. One example is Ric Lip, an Italian painter and architect from the 15th century, known for his frescoes in churches throughout Tuscany.
In the 16th century, Ric Bassee was a renowned Dutch cartographer and map-maker, whose detailed maps and atlases helped shape the understanding of geography during that era.
Moving to the 19th century, Ric Caldwell was an American pioneer and explorer who played a significant role in the westward expansion of the United States. He led expeditions and established settlements in the Rocky Mountain region.
While the name Ric has its origins in the Germanic language family, it has been adopted and used in various cultures throughout history, carrying with it a sense of power, authority, and leadership.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Ric
People
Ric + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ric 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
Ric: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ric?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,058 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ric 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 323,964 US residents.
Is Ric a common name?
We classify Ric as "Rare". It ranks above 90.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,270 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ric most popular?
The single biggest year for Ric was 1958, when 55 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ric is about 57 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ric in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,877 people with the name Ric, or 0.62 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,890 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 Ric 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 Ric?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ric appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,870 people counted with this name, 99.5% 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 Ric?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ric is White at 64.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (11.7%). 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 Ric most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ric in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.7% (1,214 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 Ric in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ric a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ric 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 Ric still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ric 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 Ric 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 are called Ric?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.