Rilyn
An invented name with no official meaning, though some believe it combines elements meaning "small meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 1,385 living Americans carry the first name Rilyn. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 89.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Rilyn today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rilyn births was 2012 (120 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rilyn. 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
- • Rilyn is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.4K
~ 1 in 247,476 Americans
Peak year
2012
120 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2023 SSA rank
#4,260
Tracked since 1999
Census
Rilyn in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,102 people with the first name Rilyn, which placed it at #11,576 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
#11,576
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,102 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rilyn
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rilyn is White at 79.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.8%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Rilyn 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 Rilyn at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.5% · 876
- Black or African American6.8% · 75
- Hispanic or Latino6.5% · 72
- Two or more races5.9% · 65
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 10
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Rilyn
Rilyn leans heavily female at 89.3% of total registrations, but 149 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Rilyn as a male name
- Ranked #10,567 in 2023
- 7 male births in 2023
- Peak: 2012 (20 births)
Rilyn as a female name
- Ranked #4,260 in 2024
- 34 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (100 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rilyn leans strongly female. 965 people counted with this name were female (87.3%), compared with 140 male bearers (12.7%).
Popularity
Rilyn: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rilyn 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 827 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rilyn remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rilyn 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 Rilyn during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rilyns live
The SSA's state-level files cover 18 states and territories. Texas, California, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Rilyn, while West Virginia, New York, North Carolina recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rilyn
The name Rilyn is derived from the Old English word "rylen," which means "to rule" or "to govern." It first emerged in the Anglo-Saxon period, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD, when Old English was the predominant language spoken in what is now England.
The name's origin can be traced back to the Germanic tribes that settled in Britain after the fall of the Roman Empire. These tribes, including the Angles and Saxons, brought their language and naming traditions with them, contributing to the development of Old English.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rilyn can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record compiled in the late 9th century. The Chronicle mentions a noble named Rilyn, who was a member of the royal court during the reign of King Alfred the Great (849-899 AD).
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Rilyn was particularly popular among the nobility and ruling classes, reflecting its association with leadership and governance. Several notable historical figures bore this name, including Rilyn of Mercia (c. 690-716 AD), a powerful ruler of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia.
In the 11th century, Rilyn the Brave (c. 1020-1087 AD) was a renowned warrior who fought alongside William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. His bravery and loyalty earned him land and titles from the new Norman rulers.
During the Renaissance period, Rilyn Chaucer (c. 1340-1400 AD) was a renowned poet and author, best known for his influential works such as "The Canterbury Tales." He is considered one of the greatest literary figures of medieval England.
In the 16th century, Rilyn Tudor (1515-1558 AD) was a prominent figure at the court of her father, King Henry VIII. She was known for her intelligence and political acumen, playing a significant role in the English Reformation.
Rilyn Cromwell (1599-1658 AD) was a prominent military leader and statesman during the English Civil War. He served as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1653 until his death.
People
Rilyn + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rilyn 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
Rilyn: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rilyn?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,385 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rilyn 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 247,476 US residents.
Is Rilyn a common name?
We classify Rilyn as "Rare". It ranks above 92% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,397 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rilyn most popular?
The single biggest year for Rilyn was 2012, when 120 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rilyn is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rilyn in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,102 people with the name Rilyn, or 0.36 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,576 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 Rilyn 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 Rilyn?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rilyn leans strongly female. 965 people counted with this name were female (87.3%), compared with 140 male bearers (12.7%). 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 Rilyn?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rilyn is White at 79.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.8%) and Hispanic (6.5%). 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 Rilyn most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rilyn in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.5% (876 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 Rilyn in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rilyn a female name?
Yes, 89.3% of people registered as Rilyn 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 Rilyn still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rilyn 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 Rilyn 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 Rilyn?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.