Very Common

Richard

A masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "brave power" or "powerful leader".

Name Census estimates that about 1,568,549 living Americans carry the first name Richard. It sits at #232 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Richard today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Richard births was 1946 (58,991 babies).

This page is the full Name Census profile for Richard. 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.

For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Richard with official rankings and popularity over time.

Key insights

• Although Richard is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 9,530 girls registered with the name since 1880.
• Compared to the 1950s, recent registration numbers for Richard have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.

People living today

1.6M

~ 1 in 219 Americans

Peak year

1946

58,991 babies that year

Average age

years old

2024 SSA rank

#232

Tracked since 1880

Census

Richard in the 2020 Census

The 2020 Census recorded 1,575,998 people with the first name Richard, which placed it at #11 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

#11

National first-name rank

People counted

1.6M

1,575,998 in the published race/origin table

Per 100,000

521.8

People with this name in 2020

Largest reported group

White

82.3% of people with this name

Demographics

Ancestry and ethnicity for Richard

In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Richard is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.0%) and Black (5.2%). 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 Richard 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 Richard at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.

White82.3% · 1,296,376
Hispanic or Latino8.0% · 125,503
Black or African American5.2% · 82,066
Two or more races2.1% · 33,784
Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 29,548
American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 8,721

Gender

Gender distribution for Richard

Out of the 2,585,535 babies given the name Richard since 1880, 99.6% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.

100% male

Male2,576,005 (99.6%)Female9,530 (0.4%)

Richard as a male name

Ranked #232 in 2024
1,539 male births in 2024
Peak: 1946 (58,871 births)

Richard as a female name

Ranked #14,927 in 2022
6 female births in 2022
Peak: 1928 (201 births)

2020 Census snapshot

In the 2020 Census sex table, Richard appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,575,998 people counted with this name, 99.9% were male and only a very small share were female.

100% male

Male1,574,600 (99.9%)Female1,398 (0.1%)

Popularity

Richard: popularity over time

The SSA tracks Richard from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 536,602 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

MaleFemale

Decades

Richard 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 Richard during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.

Decade	Male	Female	Total
1880s	7,010	28	7,038
1890s	7,572	44	7,616
1900s	10,675	59	10,734
1910s	74,603	349	74,952
1920s	222,598	1,160	223,758
1930s	330,501	1,280	331,781
1940s	477,472	1,176	478,648
1950s	535,453	1,149	536,602
1960s	373,894	1,465	375,359
1970s	202,808	1,277	204,085
1980s	154,750	1,130	155,880
1990s	94,874	298	95,172
2000s	48,582	99	48,681
2010s	26,737	10	26,747
2020s	8,476	6	8,482

Geography

Where Richards live

The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. New York, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Richard, while Alaska, Wyoming, Nevada recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 50,108 registrations each.

Origin

Meaning and history of Richard

The name Richard has its origins in the Germanic languages. It is derived from the Germanic words "ric" meaning power or rule, and "hard" meaning brave or hardy. The combined meaning of the name is "brave power" or "powerful leader".

The name first appeared around the 8th century AD as Ricohard in the Frankish Empire, which covered parts of modern-day France, Germany, and the Low Countries. The spelling evolved over time into variations like Richart, Ricardus, and eventually the modern English spelling of Richard.

One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name was Richard I, also known as Richard the Lionheart, who was the King of England from 1189 to 1199. He was a prominent leader during the Third Crusade and is known for his military exploits in the Holy Land.

Another famous historical figure with the name Richard was Richard III, who was the King of England from 1483 to 1485. His reign was marred by controversy, and he was depicted as a villainous character in William Shakespeare's play, "Richard III".

In the realm of literature, Richard is also the name of one of the central characters in Richard Wagner's famous operatic cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen". This Richard is a pivotal figure in the epic tale, which is based on Germanic mythology.

The name Richard has also been borne by several notable scientists and thinkers throughout history. These include Richard Feynman, an American physicist who made significant contributions to the field of quantum mechanics (1918-1988), and Richard Dawkins, a British evolutionary biologist and author known for his influential works on evolutionary theory and atheism (born 1941).

Another notable bearer of the name was Richard Burton, a Welsh actor who was renowned for his performances in films such as "Cleopatra" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1925-1984). He was married twice to the actress Elizabeth Taylor, and their tumultuous relationship was widely publicized in the media.

Notable bearers

Famous people named Richard

People

Richard + last name combinations

How many people share a full name with Richard as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.

Other names starting with R

Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.

FAQ

Richard: questions and answers

How many people in the U.S. are named Richard?

Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,568,549 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Richard 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 219 US residents.

Is Richard a common name?

We classify Richard as "Very Common". It ranks above 100% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,585,535 babies have been registered with this name.

When was Richard most popular?

The single biggest year for Richard was 1946, when 58,991 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Richard is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.

How common was Richard in the 2020 Census?

The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,575,998 people with the name Richard, or 521.80 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11 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 Richard 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 Richard?

In the 2020 Census sex table, Richard appears almost entirely male. Of the 1,575,998 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 Richard?

Which group reports the name Richard most often in the Census?

White is the largest reported group for people named Richard in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.3% (1,296,376 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 Richard in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.

Is Richard a male name?

Yes, 99.6% of people registered as Richard 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 Richard still being used today?

Yes. The SSA still recorded Richard 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 Richard 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 share the name Richard?

You can see how many people have the name Richard on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.

Name Census

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There are 1.6M people

with the first name

Richard

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