Find out how popular the last name Rivard is in the United States and learn more about the meaning, history, and race and ethnic origin of people in America who are named Rivard.

Rivard, like all of the last names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Rivard surname is from the 2010 census data.

Popularity of Rivard in America

Rivard is the 6186th most popular name in America based on the data we have collected from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Rivard surname appeared 5,530 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 2 people would have the surname Rivard.

We can also compare 2010 data for Rivard to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

The history of the last name Rivard

The surname Rivard originates from France and dates back to the 12th century. It is derived from the Old French word 'rivière', meaning 'river', and was likely initially a descriptive name referring to someone who lived near a river or worked on or near a river.

The earliest recorded instance of the name Rivard can be found in the Cartulaire de l'église cathédrale de Grenoble, a 12th-century manuscript from the Grenoble region of France, where a person named Petrus Rivard is mentioned.

Another early reference to the name is found in the 13th-century Cartulaire de l'abbaye de Savigny, where a Guillelmus Rivard is listed among the witnesses to a land transaction in Burgundy.

In the 14th century, the name appears in the Livre des Bourgeois de l'Echevinage de Reims, a record of the citizens of Reims, with an entry for a Jean Rivard.

The Rivard name has also been associated with several notable historical figures. One such figure was Jacques Rivard (1524-1592), a French jurist and scholar who served as a counselor in the Parlement of Paris.

Another prominent individual with the surname was François Rivard (1615-1687), a French Catholic priest and missionary who traveled to New France (now Canada) and worked among the Huron and Iroquois peoples.

In the 18th century, Louis Rivard (1720-1795) was a French merchant and ship owner who played a significant role in the trade between France and its colonies in the West Indies.

The name Rivard has also been found in various place names, such as Rivardville, a former village in Quebec, Canada, named after a local family with that surname.

Over the centuries, the surname has undergone slight variations in spelling, including Rivar, Rivart, and Rivard-Dufresne, but the root form of Rivard has remained consistent.

Race and ethnic origin of people with the last name Rivard

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Rivard.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups:

1. White only
2. Black only
3. American Indian and Alaskan Native only
4. Asian and Pacific Islander only
5. Hispanic
6. Two or More Races

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Rivard was:

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Rivard has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

Data source

The last name data and ethnic breakdown of last names is sourced directly from the Decennial Census survey, conducted every 10 years by the United States Census Bureau.

The history and meaning of the name Rivard was researched and written by our team of onomatology and genealogy experts.

If you have a correction or suggestion to improve the history of Rivard, please contact us.

Reference this page

We spend a lot of resources downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!