Richarda
A feminine name derived from the Germanic name Richard, meaning "powerful ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 24 living Americans carry the first name Richarda. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Richarda today is around 56 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Richarda births was 1993 (8 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Richarda. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Richarda. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
24
~ 1 in 14,281,431 Americans
Peak year
1993
8 babies that year
Average age
56
years old
1993 SSA rank
#10,335
Tracked since 1950
Census
Richarda in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 161 people with the first name Richarda, which placed it at #43,643 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
#43,643
National first-name rank
People counted
161
161 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
51.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Richarda
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Richarda is White at 51.6%. The next largest groups are Black (32.9%) and Hispanic (8.7%). 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 Richarda 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 Richarda at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White51.6% · 83
- Black or African American32.9% · 53
- Hispanic or Latino8.7% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.1% · 5
- Two or more races3.1% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 1
Popularity
Richarda: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Richarda from the 1950s through to the 1990s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 13 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1950s peak, Richarda remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Richarda 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 Richarda during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Richarda
Richarda is a feminine given name of Germanic origin, derived from the Germanic words "ric" meaning power or rule, and "hard" meaning brave or hardy. The name dates back to the early medieval period, around the 5th to 8th centuries AD, and was prevalent among the Germanic tribes of central and western Europe.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Richarda can be found in the Frankish chronicles of the 7th century, where a noblewoman named Richarda is mentioned as a prominent figure in the court of the Merovingian kings. Another early mention of the name comes from the Vita Sanctae Geretrudis, a hagiography written in the late 7th century, which details the life of Saint Geretrudis and mentions her sister Richarda.
In the 9th century, a Frankish abbess named Richarda is recorded as having founded the Andlau Abbey in the Alsace region of present-day France. This Richarda was a member of the Carolingian nobility and is believed to have been born around 800 AD.
During the High Middle Ages, the name Richarda gained popularity among the nobility and ruling classes of various Germanic kingdoms and principalities. One notable figure from this period was Richarda of Staufen (1087-1153), a German noblewoman and the wife of Ulrich X, Count of Bregenz.
In the late medieval and early modern periods, the name Richarda continued to be used, though with varying spellings such as Richarde, Richardis, and Richiza. A notable example from this time is Richarda of Courtenay (1209-1262), a French noblewoman who served as the Empress of Nicaea from 1237 to 1261.
Other notable individuals named Richarda throughout history include Richarda of Andlau (c. 1120-1195), a German abbess and writer; Richarda of Salzburg (c. 1025-1100), a German abbess and philanthropist; and Richarda of Denmark (c. 1180-1211), a Danish princess and the wife of King Erik X of Sweden.
While the name Richarda has fallen out of common use in many parts of the world, it remains a part of the historical record, reflecting the cultural and linguistic traditions of the Germanic peoples and their influence on European history and society.
People
Richarda + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Richarda 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
Richarda: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Richarda?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 24 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Richarda 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 14,281,431 US residents.
Is Richarda a common name?
We classify Richarda as "Very Rare". It ranks above 43% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 31 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Richarda most popular?
The single biggest year for Richarda was 1993, when 8 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Richarda is about 56 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Richarda in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 161 people with the name Richarda, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #43,643 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 Richarda 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 Richarda?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Richarda leans strongly female. 138 people counted with this name were female (85.2%), compared with 24 male bearers (14.8%). 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 Richarda?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Richarda is White at 51.6%. The next largest groups are Black (32.9%) and Hispanic (8.7%). 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 Richarda most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Richarda in the 2020 Census, accounting for 51.6% (83 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 Richarda in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Richarda a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Richarda 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 Richarda still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Richarda 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 Richarda 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 Richarda?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.