Riggan
An uncommon masculine given name of unknown meaning and origin.
Name Census estimates that about 7 living Americans carry the first name Riggan. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Riggan today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Riggan births was 2016 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Riggan. 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 Riggan. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
7
~ 1 in 48,964,905 Americans
Peak year
2016
7 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2016 SSA rank
#10,503
Tracked since 2016
Popularity
Riggan: popularity over time
Babies born per year
Decades
Riggan 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 Riggan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
| Decade | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010s | 7 | 0 | 7 |
Origin
Meaning and history of Riggan
The name Riggan is an ancient Germanic name with roots tracing back to the 5th century AD. It is derived from the Old High German words "ric" meaning powerful or ruler, and "gan" meaning to go or walk. Together, the name Riggan roughly translates to "powerful walker" or "ruler's journey".
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Riggan appears in the Beowulf epic poem, written sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries. Here, Riggan is mentioned as a minor character, a warrior in the service of King Hrothgar. This suggests the name was in use among the Anglo-Saxon peoples of what is now England during that time period.
Variants of the name can also be found in Old Norse texts such as the Icelandic Sagas from the 13th century. The similar name Riggan appears as the name of a Viking explorer who is said to have journeyed to the shores of Greenland and North America centuries before Columbus.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Riggan appeared occasionally in historical records across northern Europe. One notable bearer was Riggan the Red, a Danish chieftain who led a rebellion against King Sweyn Forkbeard in 1008. Another was Riggan of Stavanger, a Norwegian clergyman who became Bishop of Stavanger in 1193.
During the Renaissance period, the name saw a brief resurgence in popularity. Riggan Petrović was a 15th century Serbian nobleman and military commander who fought against the Ottoman Turks. Around 1510, Riggan Holmström was a Swedish explorer who claimed to have traveled as far as the coast of present-day Alaska.
In more recent centuries, famous individuals named Riggan include Riggan O'Dwyer, an Irish rebel who took part in the 1798 uprising against British rule, and Riggan Kreutzfeldt, a 19th century German physician after whom the neurodegenerative Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is named.
People
Riggan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Riggan 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
Riggan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Riggan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 7 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Riggan 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 48,964,905 US residents.
Is Riggan a common name?
We classify Riggan as "Very Rare". It ranks above 23.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Riggan most popular?
The single biggest year for Riggan was 2016, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Riggan is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
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 Riggan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Riggan a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Riggan 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 Riggan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Riggan 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 Riggan 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.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only covers names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files do not have a published Census demographic snapshot. In those cases, the page still shows the SSA trend, gender history, and state data.
How many people are called Riggan?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.