Enrique
Masculine · “home ruler”
Enrique is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 61,234 boys against 260 girls since 1880.
Enrique is the Spanish road out of an old Germanic name for a ruler of the household — the same name that became Henry in English and Henrique in Portuguese. Kings of Castile carried it through the late Middle Ages, and it has been present in American records for as long as such records have been kept. Four syllables in Spanish, with the stress landing squarely in the middle: en-REE-keh.
How old is the name Enrique?
Enrique was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Enrique alive today was born around 1995, making them about 30 years old. About 54,000 people named Enrique are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Enrique most popular?
Enrique peaked in 2000, reaching #221 nationally. Today it ranks #571, 350 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Enrique appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From Haimirich to Enrique
The story of Enrique
The name begins as Germanic Haimirich, carried into the Frankish and later German nobility, where it settled as Heinrich. Latinized as Henricus, it spread across medieval Europe with the church and the crowns, and Iberian speakers reshaped it into Enrique in Castilian and Henrique in Portuguese. Several kings of Castile bore it in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which fixed it firmly among Spanish-speaking families. It arrived in the United States with Spanish-speaking communities and has stayed on the books continuously since American name records began, strongest today in California, Texas and Florida.
Meaning
home ruler
From the Germanic elements heim, 'home', and rīc, 'ruler, power' — the same pair behind Heinrich and Henry.
How the name formed
- Haimirich
- Heinrich
- Henricus
- Enrique
Related forms: Henry · Henrique · Enrico · Henri · Heinrich · Henryk
Pronouncing Enrique
en-REE-keh
In Spanish the final syllable is a short 'keh' and the r is a single tap. English speakers commonly say en-REE-kay, which most bearers accept without correction.
Nicknames for Enrique
High
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 20001,537 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #221reached in 2000
- Change vs 2022
- −5.1%517 in 2025, from 545
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Enrique in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Henry in English — same name
- Henrique in Portuguese — same name
- Enrico in Italian — same name
- Henri in French — same name
- Heinrich in German — same name
- Henryk in Polish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Florida.
Enriques among us
people named Enrique are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 3,304 born in 2025 was named Enrique
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Roderick test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Enrique's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Roderick climbed just as high around 1967, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Roderick's path sketches the road Enrique is walking now.
Enrique sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Enrique is headed
Enrique should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Enrique beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Enrique in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Belongs to one of the best-documented name families in Europe, with an exact counterpart in English, Portuguese, Italian, French and German.
- Has an established short form, Quique, that has been in ordinary Spanish use for generations.
- One spelling, stable for centuries in Spanish — no competing modern variants to choose between.
- Present in American records without interruption since they began, and still given to babies now.
- Kike is a genuine Spanish short form of Enrique, but in American English it is an ethnic slur. Worth knowing in advance so the family can steer toward Quique instead.
- English speakers may need the pronunciation once or twice — the middle-stressed en-REE-keh often comes out as en-REEK or gets Anglicized to Henry.
- Outside Spanish-speaking areas a child with this name will likely be the only one in the room, which some enjoy and others would rather not be.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Enrique to the vote.
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What they receive
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Enrique
Masculine · #571 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Enriques are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 54,000 people named Enrique are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Enrique in 2025?
- Enrique ranks #571 among US boy names in 2025, with 517 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Enrique?
- About 1 in every 3,304 US boys born in 2025 was named Enrique — 517 in all.
- Will my child share the name Enrique with classmates?
- Enrique will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Enrique
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Johan#572 · Roberto#569 · Clay#573 · Jakai#569 · Emanuel#574 · Rocky#568 · Zain#567 · Rhodes#575
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Enrique? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Enrique and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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