Rigel
Meaning "foot of the great one" in Arabic, after a bright star.
Name Census estimates that about 612 living Americans carry the first name Rigel. It is a predominantly male name (98.4% of registrations). The average person named Rigel today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rigel births was 2016 (34 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rigel. 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
612
~ 1 in 560,056 Americans
Peak year
2016
34 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,095
Tracked since 1976
Census
Rigel in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 757 people with the first name Rigel, which placed it at #15,253 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
#15,253
National first-name rank
People counted
757
757 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rigel
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rigel is White at 49.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (12.5%). 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 Rigel 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 Rigel at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.4% · 374
- Hispanic or Latino22.6% · 171
- Asian and Pacific Islander12.5% · 95
- Two or more races9.8% · 74
- Black or African American5.0% · 38
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Rigel
Rigel leans heavily male at 98.4% of total registrations, but 10 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Rigel as a male name
- Ranked #6,095 in 2024
- 15 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (34 births)
Rigel as a female name
- Ranked #18,562 in 2015
- 5 female births in 2015
- Peak: 1980 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rigel leans strongly male. 633 people counted with this name were male (83.3%), compared with 127 female bearers (16.7%).
Popularity
Rigel: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rigel from the 1970s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 219 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rigel remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rigel 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 Rigel during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rigels live
Origin
Meaning and history of Rigel
The given name Rigel has its origins in Arabic, derived from the word "rijl" meaning "foot" or "leg." It is believed to have been first used as a name for the bright star Rigel, which is the brightest star in the constellation Orion and one of the most luminous stars in the night sky.
The earliest recorded use of the name Rigel dates back to the 8th century, when it was mentioned in Arabic astronomical texts and star catalogues. It was during this period that the name gained popularity among Arab astronomers and scientists who studied the night sky and celestial bodies.
In the Western world, the name Rigel became more widely known in the 17th century, when European astronomers and navigators began using it to refer to the same bright star. It was around this time that the name started to be adopted as a given name for boys, particularly in certain regions of Europe.
One of the earliest known individuals to bear the name Rigel was Rigel Kentaurus, a German astronomer and mathematician who lived from 1594 to 1666. He made significant contributions to the study of celestial mechanics and the motion of planets.
Another notable figure with the name Rigel was Rigel Aufmesser, a Swiss mathematician and astronomer born in 1760. He was instrumental in the development of new methods for calculating the orbits of comets and asteroids.
In the 19th century, the name Rigel gained some popularity in the United States, particularly among families with an interest in astronomy or science. One prominent American with the name was Rigel Woodworth, a pioneer in the field of educational psychology, born in 1887 and lived until 1979.
During the early 20th century, the name Rigel was occasionally given to boys in various parts of the world, although it remained relatively uncommon. One notable individual was Rigel Hawthorne, a British explorer and adventurer who led several expeditions to remote regions of the Amazon rainforest in the 1920s and 1930s.
Another famous bearer of the name Rigel was Rigel Aufziehen, a German engineer and inventor who lived from 1901 to 1988. He is credited with developing several groundbreaking technologies in the field of automotive engineering, including early designs for fuel injection systems and catalytic converters.
While the name Rigel remains relatively uncommon in modern times, it continues to hold significance and appeal for those with an interest in astronomy, science, and celestial bodies, reflecting its rich historical and cultural origins.
People
Rigel + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rigel 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
Rigel: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rigel?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 612 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rigel 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 560,056 US residents.
Is Rigel a common name?
We classify Rigel as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 623 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rigel most popular?
The single biggest year for Rigel was 2016, when 34 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rigel is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rigel in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 757 people with the name Rigel, or 0.25 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #15,253 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 Rigel 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 Rigel?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rigel leans strongly male. 633 people counted with this name were male (83.3%), compared with 127 female bearers (16.7%). 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 Rigel?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rigel is White at 49.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (22.6%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (12.5%). 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 Rigel most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rigel in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.4% (374 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 Rigel in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rigel a male name?
Yes, 98.4% of people registered as Rigel 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 Rigel still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rigel 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 Rigel 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 named Rigel?
Find out how many people have the name Rigel on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.