Rhyanna
Sweet melody derived from a Welsh name.
Name Census estimates that about 335 living Americans carry the first name Rhyanna. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Rhyanna today is around 20 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rhyanna births was 2008 (40 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rhyanna. 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 Rhyanna with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
335
~ 1 in 1,023,147 Americans
Peak year
2008
40 babies that year
Average age
20
years old
2023 SSA rank
#13,172
Tracked since 1991
Census
Rhyanna in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 325 people with the first name Rhyanna, which placed it at #27,889 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
#27,889
National first-name rank
People counted
325
325 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
36.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rhyanna
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rhyanna is White at 36.0%. The next largest groups are Black (26.2%) and Hispanic (23.7%). 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 Rhyanna 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 Rhyanna at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White36.0% · 117
- Black or African American26.2% · 85
- Hispanic or Latino23.7% · 77
- Two or more races10.5% · 34
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.8% · 9
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 3
Popularity
Rhyanna: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rhyanna from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 190 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
Rhyanna 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 Rhyanna during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rhyannas live
Origin
Meaning and history of Rhyanna
The name Rhyanna is a modern English variant of the Welsh name Rhiannon. Its origins can be traced back to the ancient Celtic mythology of the British Isles. The name is derived from the Welsh words "rhi" meaning "great" and "anuon" meaning "queen" or "goddess".
Rhiannon was the name of a prominent figure in Welsh folklore and mythology. She was celebrated as the Celtic goddess of the moon, fertility, and horse-drawn vehicles. Rhiannon is also associated with the magical birds of the otherworld, known as the Rhiannon's Birds. Her name appears in several medieval Welsh tales, including the Mabinogion, a collection of prose stories from the 12th and 13th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rhiannon can be found in the Welsh Triads, a series of traditional medieval texts that preserved fragments of Celtic mythology. The name is also mentioned in the Arthurian legends, where Rhiannon is portrayed as a beautiful and powerful enchantress.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Rhyanna or its variations. One of the earliest recorded bearers was Rhiannon ferch Gruffydd (c. 1223–1292), a Welsh princess who was the wife of Rhys Fychan, Lord of Dynevor. Another notable figure was Rhiannon Arya (1936–2006), a Welsh author and poet known for her works celebrating Welsh culture and mythology.
In the realm of literature, the name Rhiannon gained popularity after the release of the novel "Rhiannon" by Evangeline Walton in 1925. The book, inspired by Welsh mythology, introduced the name to a wider audience. Additionally, the name was further popularized by the Fleetwood Mac song "Rhiannon" released in 1976, which was inspired by the novel.
Other famous bearers of the name include Rhiannon Giddens (born 1977), an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for her work with the band Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn (born 1995), an American actress best known for her role in the television series "The Shannara Chronicles".
While the name Rhyanna is a relatively modern variant, it carries the rich cultural heritage and mythological significance of its Welsh origins, evoking the powerful and mystical figure of the Celtic goddess Rhiannon.
People
Rhyanna + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rhyanna 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
Rhyanna: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rhyanna?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 335 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rhyanna 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 1,023,147 US residents.
Is Rhyanna a common name?
We classify Rhyanna as "Very Rare". It ranks above 80.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 340 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rhyanna most popular?
The single biggest year for Rhyanna was 2008, when 40 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rhyanna is about 20 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rhyanna in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 325 people with the name Rhyanna, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,889 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 Rhyanna 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 Rhyanna?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rhyanna appears almost entirely female. Of the 327 people counted with this name, 99.1% 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 Rhyanna?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rhyanna is White at 36.0%. The next largest groups are Black (26.2%) and Hispanic (23.7%). 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 Rhyanna most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rhyanna in the 2020 Census, accounting for 36.0% (117 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 Rhyanna in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rhyanna a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Rhyanna 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 Rhyanna still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rhyanna 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 Rhyanna 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 share the name Rhyanna?
You can see how many people have the name Rhyanna on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.