Riki
A diminutive form of Richard or Henrik, of Germanic origin.
Name Census estimates that about 1,482 living Americans carry the first name Riki. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 73.2% of registrations being female. The average person named Riki today is around 39 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Riki births was 1981 (54 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Riki. 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 Riki with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 231,278 Americans
Peak year
1981
54 babies that year
Average age
39
years old
2017 SSA rank
#10,886
Tracked since 1945
Census
Riki in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,569 people with the first name Riki, which placed it at #9,033 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
#9,033
National first-name rank
People counted
1.6K
1,569 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
59.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Riki
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Riki is White at 59.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (15.3%) and Two or More Races (9.4%). 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 Riki 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 Riki at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White59.8% · 939
- Asian and Pacific Islander15.3% · 240
- Two or more races9.4% · 147
- Hispanic or Latino9.3% · 146
- Black or African American5.5% · 86
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 11
Gender
Gender distribution for Riki
Riki is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,617 total registrations, 433 (26.8%) were male and 1,184 (73.2%) were female.
Riki as a male name
- Ranked #13,833 in 2017
- 5 male births in 2017
- Peak: 1993 (17 births)
Riki as a female name
- Ranked #10,886 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1981 (46 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Riki on both sides of the split. Of the 1,571 people counted with this name, 513 were male (32.7%) and 1,058 were female (67.3%).
Popularity
Riki: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Riki from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 392 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Riki 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 Riki during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rikis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Riki, while Ohio, Texas, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 40 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Riki
The name Riki is a diminutive form of the name Rikard, which is a variation of the Germanic name Richard. The name Richard is derived from the Germanic words "ric" meaning "powerful" and "hard" meaning "brave" or "hardy". It was a popular name among the Normans and was brought to England after the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Riki is believed to have originated as a nickname or shortened version of the name Richard, particularly in Scandinavian countries such as Sweden and Norway. The earliest recorded use of the name Riki dates back to the 13th century in Sweden.
One of the earliest notable historical figures with the name Riki was Riki Sigtryggsson, a Norwegian nobleman and chieftain who lived in the 11th century. He was a prominent figure in the Faroe Islands and is mentioned in the Faroese Saga.
Another historical figure named Riki was Riki Eriksson, a Swedish farmer and politician who lived in the 15th century. He was a member of the Swedish Riksdag, which was the national assembly of Sweden at the time.
In the 16th century, there was a Finnish merchant and explorer named Riki Antinpoika, who was known for his travels and trade routes through Scandinavia and Russia.
During the 17th century, a Norwegian playwright and poet named Riki Jensson gained recognition for his comedic plays and satires that were popular in the Norwegian theater scene.
In the 19th century, a Swedish painter named Riki Lindström was renowned for his landscape paintings depicting the beauty of the Swedish countryside.
While the name Riki has been more commonly used in Scandinavian countries, it has also been adopted in other parts of the world, particularly in Japan, where it is often used as a gender-neutral name.
People
Riki + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Riki 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
Riki: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Riki?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,482 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Riki 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 231,278 US residents.
Is Riki a common name?
We classify Riki as "Rare". It ranks above 92.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,617 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Riki most popular?
The single biggest year for Riki was 1981, when 54 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Riki is about 39 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Riki in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,569 people with the name Riki, or 0.52 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,033 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 Riki 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 Riki?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Riki on both sides of the split. Of the 1,571 people counted with this name, 513 were male (32.7%) and 1,058 were female (67.3%). 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 Riki?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Riki is White at 59.8%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (15.3%) and Two or More Races (9.4%). 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 Riki most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Riki in the 2020 Census, accounting for 59.8% (939 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 Riki in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Riki a female name?
Yes, 73.2% of people registered as Riki 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 Riki still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Riki 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 Riki 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 Riki?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Riki, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.