Riley
An Irish name derived from the Gaelic surname meaning "courageous" or "valiant".
Roughly 231,382 people in the United States go by the first name Riley, which ranks #42 nationally when sorted by estimated living bearers. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 57.1% of registrations being female. The average person named Riley today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Riley births was 2008 (9,904 babies). In terms of living bearers, it sits close to Antonio (231,225).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Riley. 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 Riley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Riley sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Riley is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 18 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
231K
~ 1 in 1,481 Americans
Peak year
2008
9,904 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2024 SSA rank
#42
Tracked since 1880
Census
Riley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 191,102 people with the first name Riley, which placed it at #291 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
#291
National first-name rank
People counted
191K
191,102 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
63.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Riley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Riley is White at 80.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.9%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Riley 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 Riley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.3% · 153,415
- Hispanic or Latino6.9% · 13,246
- Two or more races5.6% · 10,612
- Black or African American4.7% · 8,958
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 3,464
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 1,407
Gender
Gender distribution for Riley
Riley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 240,821 total registrations, 103,344 (42.9%) were male and 137,477 (57.1%) were female.
Riley as a male name
- Ranked #229 in 2024
- 1,567 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2006 (4,396 births)
Riley as a female name
- Ranked #42 in 2024
- 4,644 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (7,159 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Riley on both sides of the split. Of the 191,103 people counted with this name, 83,332 were male (43.6%) and 107,771 were female (56.4%).
Popularity
Riley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Riley from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 85,152 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Riley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Riley 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 Riley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rileys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, Texas, Florida recorded the most babies named Riley, while District of Columbia, Wyoming, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 4,603 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Riley
The given name Riley has its roots in the Old English language, originating as a surname derived from the word "ricg," which means "ridge" or "hill." It was initially used as a locational surname referring to someone who lived near a prominent ridge or hill.
In the early Middle Ages, the name was primarily found in England, Scotland, and Ireland, where it was spelled in various forms, such as Riely, Reiley, and Reilly. Over time, it transitioned from being a surname to also being used as a given name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Riley can be traced back to the 13th century, when it appeared in the Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire, England, in reference to a person named William de la Rygge (from the ridge).
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Riley. One of the earliest was James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916), an American writer and poet often referred to as the "Hoosier Poet." He was renowned for his works celebrating Midwestern life and dialect.
Another famous Riley was James Riley (1777-1840), an American sailor and author who wrote a captivity narrative titled "An Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce" after being held captive in North Africa.
In the realm of sports, Pat Riley (born 1945) is a celebrated American professional basketball coach and former player, who has won numerous NBA championships as a coach with the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat.
Riley B. King (1925-2015), better known as B.B. King, was an influential American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist, widely regarded as one of the most influential and renowned blues musicians of all time.
Additionally, Riley Stearns (born 1986) is a contemporary American filmmaker and screenwriter, known for his dark comedies, such as "Faults" and "The Art of Self-Defense."
People
Riley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Riley 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
Riley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Riley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 231,382 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Riley 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 1,481 US residents.
Is Riley a common name?
We classify Riley as "Common". It ranks above 99.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 240,821 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Riley most popular?
The single biggest year for Riley was 2008, when 9,904 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Riley is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Riley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 191,102 people with the name Riley, or 63.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #291 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 Riley 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 Riley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Riley on both sides of the split. Of the 191,103 people counted with this name, 83,332 were male (43.6%) and 107,771 were female (56.4%). 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 Riley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Riley is White at 80.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (6.9%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Riley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Riley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.3% (153,415 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 Riley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Riley a female name?
Yes, 57.1% of people registered as Riley 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 Riley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Riley 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 Riley 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 called Riley?
You can see how many Americans are named Riley on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.