Ridwan
An Arabic name meaning "gateway to paradise" or "gardens of paradise".
Name Census estimates that about 700 living Americans carry the first name Ridwan. It is a predominantly male name (94.8% of registrations). The average person named Ridwan today is around 13 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ridwan births was 2015 (45 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ridwan. 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 Ridwan with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
700
~ 1 in 489,649 Americans
Peak year
2015
45 babies that year
Average age
13
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,660
Tracked since 1992
Census
Ridwan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 893 people with the first name Ridwan, which placed it at #13,490 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
#13,490
National first-name rank
People counted
893
893 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
60.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ridwan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ridwan is Black at 60.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (31.7%) and White (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 Ridwan 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 Ridwan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American60.7% · 542
- Asian and Pacific Islander31.7% · 283
- White5.2% · 46
- Two or more races2.0% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Ridwan
Ridwan leans heavily male at 94.8% of total registrations, but 37 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Ridwan as a male name
- Ranked #4,660 in 2024
- 22 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (45 births)
Ridwan as a female name
- Ranked #17,467 in 2019
- 5 female births in 2019
- Peak: 2016 (7 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ridwan leans strongly male. 767 people counted with this name were male (86.0%), compared with 125 female bearers (14.0%).
Popularity
Ridwan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ridwan from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 347 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Ridwan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ridwan 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 Ridwan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ridwans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. New York, Minnesota, California recorded the most babies named Ridwan, while Ohio, California, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ridwan
The name Ridwan has its origins in Arabic, derived from the word "Rida" meaning "satisfaction" or "contentment," and "Wan" meaning "possessor of." The name can be translated to mean "the one who possesses contentment" or "the one who is satisfied." It is believed to have emerged in the 7th century during the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula.
Ridwan is mentioned in several Islamic texts, including the Quran and the Hadith (sayings of Prophet Muhammad). In the Quran, Ridwan is referred to as the name of the angel who guards the gates of Paradise. The name is also associated with the concept of "Jannah" (Paradise) in Islamic theology, signifying the ultimate state of contentment and bliss.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Ridwan can be found in the works of the celebrated Islamic scholar and historian, Ibn Ishaq, who lived in the 8th century. He mentions a companion of Prophet Muhammad named Ridwan ibn al-Harith al-Fazari, who fought alongside the Prophet in various battles.
Throughout history, several notable figures have borne the name Ridwan. One of the most famous was Ridwan ibn al-Walid (born around 652 CE), a military commander who served under the Umayyad Caliphate and played a crucial role in the Muslim conquests of Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
Another prominent figure was Ridwan al-Samarkandi (born around 1040 CE), a renowned Islamic scholar and philosopher from Samarkand, who made significant contributions to the fields of logic, metaphysics, and ethics.
In the 13th century, Ridwan al-Sayfi (born around 1200 CE) was a prominent Arab poet and writer from Egypt, known for his mastery of the Arabic language and his influential works on poetry and literature.
During the Ottoman Empire, Ridwan Pasha (1510-1563 CE) was a celebrated military commander and Grand Vizier, known for his successful campaigns against the Safavid Empire and his contributions to the expansion of the Ottoman territories.
In more recent times, Ridwan Saidi (1935-2008) was an influential Indonesian writer and journalist, known for his works on social and political issues, as well as his efforts in promoting literary and cultural development in his country.
While the name Ridwan has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has transcended geographical boundaries and is now used across various regions and communities around the world.
People
Ridwan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ridwan 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
Ridwan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ridwan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 700 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ridwan 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 489,649 US residents.
Is Ridwan a common name?
We classify Ridwan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 87.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 707 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ridwan most popular?
The single biggest year for Ridwan was 2015, when 45 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ridwan is about 13 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ridwan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 893 people with the name Ridwan, or 0.30 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,490 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 Ridwan 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 Ridwan?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ridwan leans strongly male. 767 people counted with this name were male (86.0%), compared with 125 female bearers (14.0%). 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 Ridwan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ridwan is Black at 60.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (31.7%) and White (5.2%). 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 Ridwan most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Ridwan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.7% (542 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 Ridwan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ridwan a male name?
Yes, 94.8% of people registered as Ridwan 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 Ridwan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ridwan 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 Ridwan 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 common is the name Ridwan?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Ridwan at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.