Richie
Diminutive form of Richard, a masculine name of Germanic origin meaning "brave ruler".
Name Census estimates that about 6,425 living Americans carry the first name Richie. It is a predominantly male name (94.4% of registrations). The average person named Richie today is around 44 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Richie births was 1964 (230 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Richie. 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 Richie with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.4K
~ 1 in 53,347 Americans
Peak year
1964
230 babies that year
Average age
44
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,798
Tracked since 1899
Census
Richie in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 7,053 people with the first name Richie, which placed it at #3,116 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
#3,116
National first-name rank
People counted
7.1K
7,053 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
2.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
47.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Richie
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Richie is White at 47.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.7%). 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 Richie 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 Richie at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White47.7% · 3,363
- Hispanic or Latino20.2% · 1,426
- Asian and Pacific Islander14.7% · 1,037
- Black or African American13.5% · 954
- Two or more races2.8% · 197
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 76
Gender
Gender distribution for Richie
Richie leans heavily male at 94.4% of total registrations, but 419 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Richie as a male name
- Ranked #1,798 in 2024
- 91 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1964 (220 births)
Richie as a female name
- Ranked #10,885 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1946 (16 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Richie leans strongly male. 6,704 people counted with this name were male (95.0%), compared with 354 female bearers (5.0%).
Popularity
Richie: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Richie from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1960s, with 1,761 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1960s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Richie 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 Richie during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Richies live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. California, New York, Texas recorded the most babies named Richie, while Washington, Minnesota, Hawaii recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 132 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Richie
The name Richie is an English diminutive form of the name Richard, which derives from the Germanic name Ricard. The name Ricard itself is composed of the Germanic elements ric, meaning "power" or "ruler," and hard, meaning "brave" or "hardy." Thus, the full meaning of the name Richard, and by extension Richie, is "brave power" or "powerful ruler."
The name Richard gained widespread popularity in medieval Europe due to its association with several prominent figures in history. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the 8th century, with the Frankish Duke Richard the Justiciar, who lived from around 725 to 791.
In England, the name became particularly popular after the Norman Conquest in 1066, when William the Conqueror's loyal supporter, Richard FitzGilbert, was rewarded with lands and titles. The name Richard subsequently appeared in several English monarchs, including Richard I (1157-1199), known as Richard the Lionheart, and Richard III (1452-1485), whose reign was marked by the Wars of the Roses.
Other notable historical figures with the name Richard include the Italian composer Richard Wagner (1813-1883), the American writer Richard Wright (1908-1960), and the English actor Richard Burton (1925-1984). The diminutive form Richie has also been borne by several famous individuals, such as the American singer-songwriter Richie Havens (1941-2013) and the American actor Richie Sambora (born 1959).
Additionally, the name Richie has appeared in various literary works and religious texts throughout history. In the Bible, the Book of Revelation mentions a figure named "the rich man," which some scholars believe may be a reference to a person named Richard or Richie. The name has also been used in works of fiction, such as the character Richie Tozier in Stephen King's novel "It."
Notable bearers
Famous people named Richie
People
Richie + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Richie 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
Richie: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Richie?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,425 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Richie 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 53,347 US residents.
Is Richie a common name?
We classify Richie as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 7,478 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Richie most popular?
The single biggest year for Richie was 1964, when 230 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Richie is about 44 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Richie in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 7,053 people with the name Richie, or 2.34 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,116 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 Richie 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 Richie?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Richie leans strongly male. 6,704 people counted with this name were male (95.0%), compared with 354 female bearers (5.0%). 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 Richie?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Richie is White at 47.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (20.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14.7%). 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 Richie most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Richie in the 2020 Census, accounting for 47.7% (3,363 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 Richie in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Richie a male name?
Yes, 94.4% of people registered as Richie 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 Richie still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Richie 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 Richie 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 common is the name Richie?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.