Raider
Masculine · “one who raids”
Raider is the English word, and raid and road are the same word — both from a ride, one of them by way of Scottish border warfare.
How old is the name Raider?
Raider first appears in US birth records in 1995 — 30 years ago. The typical Raider is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 600 people named Raider are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Raider most popular?
Raider peaked in 2018, reaching #2635 nationally. Today it ranks #4396, 1,761 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From rad to Raider
The story of Raider
Rad meant a riding, and the two senses split by dialect: in the north it named the mounted raids of the border reivers, and in the south it named the way you rode along. Standard English lost the first sense entirely until Scott brought it back from Scots in the 1800s. So raid and road are one word, and one of them spent four hundred years out of English.
Meaning
one who raids
From Old English rad, a riding or a road; Scots kept raid for a mounted incursion while standard English kept road for the way. Walter Scott revived raid in English from Scots in the nineteenth century.
How the name formed
- rad
- raid
- raider
Related forms: Raid · Road
Pronouncing Raider
RAY-der
Two syllables, first stressed. There is no variation in English.
Nicknames for Raider
Moderate
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
- 1995
- Most boys named
- 201847 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2635reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- −20.7%23 in 2025, from 29
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.
Raider in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Raid in Scots — related form
- Road in English — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Arizona.
Raiders among us
people named Raider are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 74,264 born in 2025 was named Raider
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Raider
- #4396
- Raider on the 2025 chart
- #893
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Raider went to 23 boys in 2025, but Rayder is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 35, which makes it the 893rd most-given boys’ name of the year — 3,503 places above the chart.
- Raider23
- Rayder12
About 1 boy in 48,802 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 74,264 for Raider itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Darshan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Raider's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Darshan climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Darshan's path sketches the road Raider is walking now.
Raider 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
Raider beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Raider in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- An ordinary English word, so nobody has to be taught to say or spell it.
- The raid-and-road connection is a genuinely good piece of word history.
- Ray is a plain short form that works at any age.
- It names someone who attacks and takes, which strangers will remark on.
- An American football team carries the word, which is a strong association.
- Six letters and two syllables, manageable but not short.
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Raider
Masculine · #4396 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Raiders are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Raider are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Raider?
- Raider is the most-used spelling in US records — 23 of the 35 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Rayder.
- How popular is the name Raider in 2025?
- Raider ranks #4396 among US boy names in 2025, with 23 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Raider?
- About 1 in every 74,264 US boys born in 2025 was named Raider — 23 in all.
- Will my child share the name Raider with classmates?
- Raider will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Raider
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Odell#4396 · Corwin#4396 · Tennyson#4396 · Marques#4396 · Manu#4396 · Omid#4396 · Zackariah#4396 · Burton#4396
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Raider? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Raider and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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