Riyan
A masculine name of Arabic origin meaning "sweet basil" or "fragrant garden".
Name Census estimates that about 1,725 living Americans carry the first name Riyan. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 60.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Riyan today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Riyan births was 2018 (144 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Riyan. 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 Riyan with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Riyan sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Riyan is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 10 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.7K
~ 1 in 198,698 Americans
Peak year
2018
144 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,459
Tracked since 1994
Census
Riyan in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,145 people with the first name Riyan, which placed it at #11,291 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
#11,291
National first-name rank
People counted
1.1K
1,145 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Asian and Pacific Islander
39.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Riyan
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Riyan is Asian/Pacific Islander at 39.1%. The next largest groups are Black (38.6%) and White (13.5%). 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 Riyan 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 Riyan at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Asian and Pacific Islander39.1% · 448
- Black or African American38.6% · 442
- White13.5% · 155
- Two or more races4.4% · 50
- Hispanic or Latino3.2% · 37
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 13
Gender
Gender distribution for Riyan
Riyan is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,739 total registrations, 1,059 (60.9%) were male and 680 (39.1%) were female.
Riyan as a male name
- Ranked #2,459 in 2024
- 56 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (97 births)
Riyan as a female name
- Ranked #7,499 in 2024
- 15 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (60 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Riyan on both sides of the split. Of the 1,142 people counted with this name, 643 were male (56.3%) and 499 were female (43.7%).
Popularity
Riyan: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Riyan 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 933 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Riyan remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Riyan 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 Riyan during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Riyans live
The SSA's state-level files cover 14 states and territories. California, New Jersey, Texas recorded the most babies named Riyan, while North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 41 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Riyan
The name Riyan is derived from the Arabic language and has its origins in the Middle East and North Africa regions. It is believed to have emerged sometime during the medieval period, around the 7th to 13th centuries.
The name Riyan is a variant spelling of the Arabic name Ryan, which itself is derived from the Arabic word "ra'a," meaning "to pasture" or "to graze." This connection to pasturing and grazing suggests that the name may have initially been associated with pastoral or nomadic lifestyles prevalent in the region.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Riyan can be found in the writings of the 9th-century Arab historian and scholar, Al-Tabari. He mentions a person named Riyan ibn al-Walid, who was a military commander during the Abbasid Caliphate.
In the 11th century, a famous poet and philosopher named Riyan al-Andalusi lived in the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal). He was renowned for his contributions to literature and philosophical thought during the golden age of Islamic civilization in the region.
Another notable figure with the name Riyan was Riyan al-Hadrami, a 12th-century Sufi scholar and mystic from Yemen. His writings and teachings on spiritual enlightenment and self-realization were highly influential in the Arabian Peninsula.
In the 13th century, Riyan ibn Abi al-Khayr was a prominent scholar and jurist from Damascus, Syria. He was known for his expertise in Islamic jurisprudence and his contributions to the development of Sharia law.
A more recent historical figure with the name Riyan was Riyan al-Sulayti, an 18th-century Arab poet and writer from Iraq. He was renowned for his eloquent poetry and his mastery of the Arabic language.
While the name Riyan has its roots in the Arabic language and Islamic culture, it has since been adopted and used in various parts of the world, albeit with varying spellings and pronunciations.
People
Riyan + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Riyan 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
Riyan: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Riyan?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,725 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Riyan 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 198,698 US residents.
Is Riyan a common name?
We classify Riyan as "Rare". It ranks above 93.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,739 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Riyan most popular?
The single biggest year for Riyan was 2018, when 144 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Riyan is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Riyan in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,145 people with the name Riyan, or 0.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,291 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 Riyan 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 Riyan?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Riyan on both sides of the split. Of the 1,142 people counted with this name, 643 were male (56.3%) and 499 were female (43.7%). 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 Riyan?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Riyan is Asian/Pacific Islander at 39.1%. The next largest groups are Black (38.6%) and White (13.5%). 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 Riyan most often in the Census?
Asian/Pacific Islander is the largest reported group for people named Riyan in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.1% (448 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 Riyan in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Riyan a male name?
Yes, 60.9% of people registered as Riyan 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 Riyan still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Riyan 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 Riyan 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 are called Riyan?
You can see how many people share the name Riyan on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.