Ricci
A masculine given name of Italian origin meaning "curly-haired".
Name Census estimates that about 1,515 living Americans carry the first name Ricci. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 50.7% of registrations being male. The average person named Ricci today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ricci births was 1954 (99 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ricci. 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 Ricci with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ricci started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Ricci sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
1.5K
~ 1 in 226,240 Americans
Peak year
1954
99 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2019 SSA rank
#13,709
Tracked since 1944
Census
Ricci in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,569 people with the first name Ricci, 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
62.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ricci
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ricci is White at 62.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.3%) and Black (12.0%). 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 Ricci 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 Ricci at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White62.6% · 982
- Hispanic or Latino16.3% · 256
- Black or African American12.0% · 189
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.8% · 75
- Two or more races3.4% · 54
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Ricci
Ricci is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,733 total registrations, 879 (50.7%) were male and 854 (49.3%) were female.
Ricci as a male name
- Ranked #13,709 in 2019
- 5 male births in 2019
- Peak: 1954 (94 births)
Ricci as a female name
- Ranked #17,252 in 2022
- 5 female births in 2022
- Peak: 1980 (48 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ricci on both sides of the split. Of the 1,573 people counted with this name, 711 were male (45.2%) and 862 were female (54.8%).
Popularity
Ricci: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ricci from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 411 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ricci 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 Ricci during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Riccis live
The SSA's state-level files cover 7 states and territories. California, New York, Ohio recorded the most babies named Ricci, while Utah, Indiana, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 30 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ricci
The given name Ricci is an Italian name derived from the Italian word "riccio," which means "curly" or "curly-haired." The name likely originated in medieval Italy, where it was used as a nickname or descriptive name for someone with curly hair.
In the 13th century, the name Ricci appeared in historical records as a surname, indicating its early use as a descriptive name. One of the earliest recorded instances is Fra Ricci, an Italian Franciscan friar and missionary who lived from around 1230 to 1305.
The name gained prominence in Italy during the Renaissance period, with several notable individuals bearing the name. One of the most famous was Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), an Italian Jesuit priest who traveled to China and became one of the first Westerners to master the Chinese language and culture.
Another notable figure with the name Ricci was Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734), an Italian Baroque painter known for his frescoes and mythological scenes. His works adorned churches and palaces throughout Italy and Europe.
In the 19th century, Ricci Oddi (1804-1874) was an Italian painter and art collector from Bologna. He amassed a significant collection of artworks, which later became the basis for the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, one of Italy's most important art museums.
More recently, Ricci Martin (1953-2016) was an American actor and musician, best known as the son of legendary entertainer Dean Martin. He followed in his father's footsteps, performing in various television shows and musicals throughout his career.
While the name Ricci has its roots in Italy, it has been adopted and used in various cultures around the world, particularly in areas with strong Italian influences or communities.
People
Ricci + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ricci 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
Ricci: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ricci?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,515 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ricci 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 226,240 US residents.
Is Ricci a common name?
We classify Ricci as "Rare". It ranks above 92.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,733 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ricci most popular?
The single biggest year for Ricci was 1954, when 99 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ricci is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ricci in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,569 people with the name Ricci, 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 Ricci 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 Ricci?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ricci on both sides of the split. Of the 1,573 people counted with this name, 711 were male (45.2%) and 862 were female (54.8%). 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 Ricci?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ricci is White at 62.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (16.3%) and Black (12.0%). 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 Ricci most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ricci in the 2020 Census, accounting for 62.6% (982 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 Ricci in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ricci a male name?
Yes, 50.7% of people registered as Ricci in the SSA data are male. 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 Ricci still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ricci 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 Ricci 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 Ricci?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.