Rickford
A masculine name derived from the Old English elements "ric" and "ford", together meaning "wealthy ford" or "powerful river crossing".
Name Census estimates that about 13 living Americans carry the first name Rickford. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Rickford today is around 72 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rickford births was 1950 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rickford. 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 Rickford is about 72 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Rickfords were born before 1964.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Rickford. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
13
~ 1 in 26,365,718 Americans
Peak year
1950
8 babies that year
Average age
72
years old
1954 SSA rank
#4,260
Tracked since 1950
Census
Rickford in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 101 people with the first name Rickford, which placed it at #53,227 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
#53,227
National first-name rank
People counted
101
101 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
46.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rickford
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rickford is Black at 46.5%. The next largest groups are White (41.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.9%). 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 Rickford 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 Rickford at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American46.5% · 47
- White41.6% · 42
- Asian and Pacific Islander6.9% · 7
- Hispanic or Latino3.0% · 3
- Two or more races2.0% · 2
Popularity
Rickford: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Rickford 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 Rickford during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950s | 18 | 0 | 18 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Rickford
The name Rickford is of English origin, derived from the Old English words "ric" meaning powerful or wealthy, and "ford" meaning a shallow river crossing. It likely emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, sometime between the 5th and 11th centuries AD.
Rickford was initially a locational surname, referring to someone who lived near a powerful or wealthy ford. As a given name, it gained popularity in the late medieval period, particularly among the English gentry and landed classes who valued names reflecting strength and prosperity.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rickford can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which mentions a landowner named Rickford de Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. In the 12th century, a Rickford de Montfort is mentioned in the chronicles of the Montfort family, a prominent noble house in Normandy and England.
During the Renaissance period, a notable bearer of the name was Sir Rickford Grenville (1542-1591), an English naval commander and explorer who fought against the Spanish Armada in 1588. He was later immortalized in Alfred Tennyson's famous poem "The Revenge: A Ballad of the Fleet".
In the 17th century, Rickford Colepeper (1600-1669) was a prominent English politician and member of the Long Parliament during the English Civil War. He initially supported the Parliamentarian cause but later switched sides and became a staunch Royalist.
Another notable figure was Rickford Woodward (1637-1701), an English poet and playwright who wrote several popular stage comedies during the Restoration period under the patronage of Charles II.
In the 18th century, Rickford Roscoe (1718-1784) was a respected English botanist and horticulturist, best known for his work on the classification of plants and his involvement in the establishment of the Liverpool Botanic Garden.
People
Rickford + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rickford 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
Rickford: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rickford?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 13 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rickford 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 26,365,718 US residents.
Is Rickford a common name?
We classify Rickford as "Very Rare". It ranks above 33.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 18 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rickford most popular?
The single biggest year for Rickford was 1950, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rickford is about 72 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rickford in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 101 people with the name Rickford, or 0.03 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #53,227 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 Rickford 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 Rickford?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rickford leans strongly male. 103 people counted with this name were male (98.1%), compared with 2 female bearers (1.9%). 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 Rickford?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rickford is Black at 46.5%. The next largest groups are White (41.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (6.9%). 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 Rickford most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rickford in the 2020 Census, accounting for 46.5% (47 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 Rickford in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rickford a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rickford 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 Rickford still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rickford 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 Rickford 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 Rickford?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.