Riker
A masculine name of American origin meaning "brave, strong".
Name Census estimates that about 1,198 living Americans carry the first name Riker. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Riker today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Riker births was 2015 (95 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Riker. 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 Riker with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Riker is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 11 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 286,105 Americans
Peak year
2015
95 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,145
Tracked since 1991
Census
Riker in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 945 people with the first name Riker, which placed it at #12,946 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
#12,946
National first-name rank
People counted
945
945 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Riker
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Riker is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.1%) and Two or More Races (6.1%). 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 Riker 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 Riker at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.4% · 769
- Hispanic or Latino9.1% · 86
- Two or more races6.1% · 58
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 14
- Black or African American1.1% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.8% · 8
Popularity
Riker: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Riker from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 641 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Riker remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Riker 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 Riker during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rikers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Riker, while Wisconsin, South Carolina, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 19 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Riker
The name Riker is of German origin, derived from the Old High German word "richo," meaning "powerful" or "ruler." It is believed to have first emerged in the 9th century during the Carolingian dynasty, a period when Germanic names were prevalent in parts of Europe.
In its earliest form, the name was spelled "Rihhari" or "Rihheri," later evolving into "Richer" and eventually "Riker." The name's association with power and leadership may have been influenced by the prominence of Frankish nobles and military commanders bearing similar names during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Riker can be found in the Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae Regiae, a collection of medieval documents from Saxony, where a nobleman named "Richerus" is mentioned in a charter dated 1012 AD.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Riker. In the 13th century, Richer of Rheims (c. 1260-1312) was a French chronicler and monk renowned for his historical work "Historiae." During the Renaissance, Richer Grenier (1499-1560) was a French jurist and legal scholar who served as a counselor to the Parliament of Paris.
In the realm of literature, Riker Van Metre (1864-1931) was an American poet and educator, known for his contributions to the literary magazine "The Smart Set." Another notable figure was Riker Hartman (1892-1956), an American football player and coach who led the University of Pittsburgh's football team to several successful seasons in the 1920s.
More recently, Riker Hill (1912-1996) was an American actor and screenwriter, best known for his work in Western films and television shows in the mid-20th century.
While the name Riker has its roots in Germanic languages, it has transcended cultural boundaries and found use in various parts of the world, reflecting the diverse and interconnected nature of human history and naming traditions.
People
Riker + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Riker 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
Riker: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Riker?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,198 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Riker 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 286,105 US residents.
Is Riker a common name?
We classify Riker as "Rare". It ranks above 91.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,208 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Riker most popular?
The single biggest year for Riker was 2015, when 95 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Riker is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Riker in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 945 people with the name Riker, or 0.31 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #12,946 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 Riker 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 Riker?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Riker leans strongly male. 927 people counted with this name were male (97.6%), compared with 23 female bearers (2.4%). 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 Riker?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Riker is White at 81.4%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.1%) and Two or More Races (6.1%). 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 Riker most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Riker in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.4% (769 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 Riker in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Riker a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Riker 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 Riker still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Riker 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 Riker 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 Americans are named Riker?
See how many people have the name Riker on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.