Richter
A masculine German name derived from the word "Richter", meaning "judge" or "ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 65 living Americans carry the first name Richter. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Richter today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Richter births was 2021 (10 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Richter. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Richter. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
65
~ 1 in 5,273,144 Americans
Peak year
2021
10 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#8,166
Tracked since 2007
Census
Richter in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 145 people with the first name Richter, which placed it at #46,211 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
#46,211
National first-name rank
People counted
145
145 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
65.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Richter
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Richter is White at 65.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.3%). 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 Richter 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 Richter at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White65.5% · 95
- Hispanic or Latino14.5% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander8.3% · 12
- Two or more races5.5% · 8
- Black or African American4.8% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 2
Popularity
Richter: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Richter from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 34 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Richter 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 Richter during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Richter
The name Richter is of German origin, derived from the word "rihter," which means "judge" or "one who rules." This name has its roots in the early medieval period, around the 5th to 10th centuries AD, when it was used to refer to local magistrates or officials who presided over legal matters in Germanic communities.
The earliest recorded instances of the name Richter can be traced back to the 9th century, where it appears in various legal documents and chronicles from the Frankish and Holy Roman Empire regions. One of the notable historical figures bearing this name was Richter of Verdun, a 10th-century bishop and intellectual who played a significant role in the revival of classical learning during the Carolingian Renaissance.
In the later medieval period, the name Richter continued to be associated with individuals involved in the legal profession or holding positions of authority. For example, Konrad Richter, a 14th-century German jurist and scholar, was renowned for his contributions to the development of Roman law and its application in the Holy Roman Empire.
During the Renaissance and Reformation eras, the name Richter gained further prominence. One of the most famous individuals bearing this name was Martin Richter, a 16th-century German theologian and Lutheran reformer who collaborated closely with Martin Luther and played a crucial role in the spread of Protestantism in Germany.
In the realm of arts and literature, the name Richter is associated with notable figures such as Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, better known by his pen name Jean Paul, an 18th-century German novelist and humorist celebrated for his philosophical and satirical works. Another notable bearer of this name was Hans Richter, a 20th-century German-born American painter and filmmaker, who was a pioneer of abstract art and experimental cinema.
Other notable individuals with the name Richter include Svante Richter, a 17th-century Swedish mathematician and astronomer; Karl Richter, a 20th-century German conductor and organist renowned for his interpretations of Baroque music; and Hans Richter, a 20th-century German-American psychologist and philosopher who contributed significantly to the development of Gestalt psychology.
People
Richter + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Richter 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
Richter: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Richter?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 65 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Richter 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 5,273,144 US residents.
Is Richter a common name?
We classify Richter as "Very Rare". It ranks above 58.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 65 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Richter most popular?
The single biggest year for Richter was 2021, when 10 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Richter is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Richter in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 145 people with the name Richter, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #46,211 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 Richter 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 Richter?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Richter leans strongly male. 135 people counted with this name were male (93.1%), compared with 10 female bearers (6.9%). 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 Richter?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Richter is White at 65.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (14.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (8.3%). 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 Richter most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Richter in the 2020 Census, accounting for 65.5% (95 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 Richter in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Richter a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Richter 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 Richter still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Richter 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 Richter 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 the name Richter?
See how many Americans are named Richter on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.