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The first name 
Richard

Richard is a first name typically given to boys, but in rare cases also used as a girls name.

Richard – known and loved in the US!

The name Richard isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all boys names, Richard ranks 160. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn boys, approximately 13 were named Richard. In total, there are currently 2,537,337 people – children, adults and seniors – named Richard living in the United States, which is approximately 0.76 % of the entire population.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Richard

What does the name 
Richard mean?

The first name Richard means ‘strong ruler’. This meaning results from the Old High German word parts ‘rīhhi’ for ‘ruler’ and ‘harti’ for ‘strong, powerful’ contained in the name.

Richard was a very popular name... for kings and rulers. A prominent example is Richard I of England, who reigned from 1189 until his death in 1199 and is commonly known as Richard the Lionheart.

Richard -
a popular traditional name in the U.S.

History tends to focus on the most famous and the best. But even those who play second fiddle leave their mark: Richard is one of those names without which the orchestra would be incomplete. In fact, the SmartGenius top ranking #5 has been hit more than once, although the last instance was some time ago, way back in the last century in 1947. But even though the peak of its popularity was many decades ago, the name Richard has been given to newborn boys every year since records began. Richard is a name of exceptional enduring popularity, conveying the special vibes of the 20th century.

In years where the graph has no value, the name Richard was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.

Richard -
especially popular in Maine

Richard is one of the most common names in the U.S. – in all states combined, 2,537,337 people would currently turn around if you called out RICHARD really loud. Across all states and age groups, this lands Richard on position 8 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top male names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above. With so many people named Richard, it’s no surprise that the name is widely used in every single state in the U.S., but would you have guessed that Richard is especially popular in Maine? Here, 2,68% of all male residents bear the name Richard – that is a total of 19,906 men with this popular name and no other state has as many men named Richard relative to its population. But that’s not all the popularity: In Maine Richard even belongs to the top 10 of all male names – the 19,906 men called Richardelevate their name up to place #4 in the SmartGenius ranking of the most common male names for Maine.

Richard has 7 letters 
and begins with an R

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter R is quite common as an initial letter for boys’ names. To be precise, 5.2% of all boys' names in the US begin with this letter. The most common first letters of boys' names, by the way, are J, A and D.

With seven letters, the name Richard has a typical length for first names in the US. In fact, 26% of all common first names consist of exactly seven letters. 52% of all first names are shorter, while 22% have eight letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

Therefore: As 5.2% of all boys' names start with R, this initial letter occurs much more often than all 26 letters on average. And maybe interesting to know: of all the names that begin with an R, Robert is the most common.

Other names with 
R, i, c, h, a, r and d

If you take all the letters in the name Richard – R, i, c, h, a, r and d – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Ricahrd or Rihcard.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Richard

If your name is Richard and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Richard

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Richard, you can simply say:

Rocket

Igloo

Cat

Hat

Apple

Rocket

Dinosaur

This is how the name Richard is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Richard in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Richard

Richard

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Richard

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Richard is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

R
I
C
H
A
R
D

Have you ever waved the name Richard

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

R
I
C
H
A
R
D

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Richard sounds like this: