Rihanna
A feminine name of Arabic origin meaning "sweet basil".
Name Census estimates that about 6,464 living Americans carry the first name Rihanna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Rihanna today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rihanna births was 2008 (1,080 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rihanna. 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 Rihanna with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Rihanna is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
6.5K
~ 1 in 53,025 Americans
Peak year
2008
1,080 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2008 SSA rank
#1,756
Tracked since 2000
Census
Rihanna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 4,638 people with the first name Rihanna, which placed it at #4,138 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
#4,138
National first-name rank
People counted
4.6K
4,638 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
40.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rihanna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rihanna is Black at 40.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (34.5%) and White (12.1%). 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 Rihanna 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 Rihanna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American40.5% · 1,879
- Hispanic or Latino34.5% · 1,599
- White12.1% · 562
- Two or more races6.6% · 304
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.8% · 221
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 73
Gender
Gender distribution for Rihanna
Out of the 6,527 babies given the name Rihanna since 1880, 99.9% were registered as female. The name sits firmly on the female side of the spectrum, with only a handful of male registrations across the entire dataset.
Rihanna as a male name
- Ranked #14,169 in 2008
- 5 male births in 2008
- Peak: 2008 (5 births)
Rihanna as a female name
- Ranked #1,756 in 2024
- 115 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (1,075 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rihanna appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,637 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male.
Popularity
Rihanna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rihanna from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 3,351 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rihanna 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 Rihanna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rihannas live
The SSA's state-level files cover 38 states and territories. Texas, California, New York recorded the most babies named Rihanna, while Rhode Island, Kansas, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 146 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rihanna
The name Rihanna is of Arabic origin, derived from the word "rayhan," which means "sweet basil" or "fragrant plant." It is believed to have emerged during the medieval period in the Arabian Peninsula and was later adopted by various cultures across the Middle East and North Africa.
The earliest known historical reference to the name Rihanna can be traced back to the 12th century, where it was mentioned in several Arabic literary works and poetry. One notable mention is found in the writings of the renowned Persian poet Nizami Ganjavi, who used the name as a metaphor for beauty and grace.
In the 13th century, Rihanna gained popularity among the ruling classes of the Ottoman Empire, with several princesses and noblewomen bearing the name. One of the most famous historical figures named Rihanna was Rihanna Khanum, a 16th-century Ottoman princess known for her patronage of the arts and literature.
During the Islamic Golden Age, the name Rihanna was associated with intellectual pursuits and artistic expression. Several notable scholars, poets, and musicians bore this name, including Rihanna al-Bairuni, a 10th-century Persian mathematician, and Rihanna al-Andalusi, a 12th-century Andalusian poet and musician.
As the name spread across the Middle East and North Africa, it took on various spellings and variations, such as Rayhana, Rayhan, and Rihanah. In the 16th century, the name gained some popularity in Europe, particularly among the Sephardic Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal, who had adopted Arabic names during their time in the Iberian Peninsula.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Rihanna. These include Rihanna bint Isa al-Hashimi (790-830), a renowned 9th-century Arab poet and scholar; Rihanna al-Kurdi (1613-1680), a 17th-century Ottoman calligrapher and poet; Rihanna al-Nabulsi (1641-1718), a renowned Syrian scholar and jurist; Rihanna Bint Hussain Al Saud (1838-1919), a member of the Saudi royal family; and Rihanna Rashid (1891-1965), a pioneering Syrian feminist and educator.
People
Rihanna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rihanna 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
Rihanna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rihanna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,464 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rihanna 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 53,025 US residents.
Is Rihanna a common name?
We classify Rihanna as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,527 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rihanna most popular?
The single biggest year for Rihanna was 2008, when 1,080 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rihanna is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rihanna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 4,638 people with the name Rihanna, or 1.54 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,138 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 Rihanna 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 Rihanna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rihanna appears almost entirely female. Of the 4,637 people counted with this name, 99.7% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Rihanna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rihanna is Black at 40.5%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (34.5%) and White (12.1%). 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 Rihanna most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Rihanna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 40.5% (1,879 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 Rihanna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rihanna a female name?
Yes, 99.9% of people registered as Rihanna in the SSA data are female. 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 Rihanna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rihanna 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 Rihanna 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 Rihanna?
See how many people have the name Rihanna on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.