Ricardo
Masculine · “strong in rule”
Ricardo is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 146,456 boys against 713 girls since 1880. See Ricardo as a girl name
Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese rebuild of a Germanic name that English keeps in a rougher form. The rebuilding is systematic rather than decorative: Spanish gives a man's name the ending its own masculine nouns take, and the result sounds native in a way that borrowed names usually do not.
How old is the name Ricardo?
Ricardo first appears in US birth records in 1888 — 137 years ago. The typical Ricardo alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 133,000 people named Ricardo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ricardo most popular?
Ricardo peaked in 1992, reaching #115 nationally. Today it ranks #380, 265 places below that high. See the whole 1992 chart.
Ricardo appears on these lists:
- Spanish and Latin names with warmth
- Portuguese names in the American record
- Names ending in -o
- all guides
Works in Spanish & Latino families too:
Where it comes from
From Ricohard to Ricardo
The story of Ricardo
The most consequential argument ever made by a man with this surname is one almost every economics course still opens with. David Ricardo, a London stockbroker who had made a fortune and retired to write, set out to show that two countries both gain from trade even when one of them is better at making everything. His example used England, Portugal, cloth and wine: Portugal can produce both more cheaply, and yet if each country makes the thing it is relatively better at and trades for the rest, both end up with more. The point is about ratios rather than absolute skill, and it is counter-intuitive enough that people who accept it in the abstract still argue against it in particular cases. He also argued, in the same book, that rent is what landowners extract from the mere fact of owning good ground, which made him considerably less popular with the landowners.
Meaning
strong in rule; a brave ruler
The two Germanic elements are a word for rule or power and one meaning hard or brave, which in that naming system was a compliment rather than a description. Spanish took the name from the Normans and French, replaced the final cluster with its own masculine ending, and has treated it as an ordinary native name ever since.
How the name formed
- Ricohard
- Richard
- Ricardo
Related forms: Richard · Riccardo · Richard · Ricardo · Ryszard
Pronouncing Ricardo
ree-KAR-doh
Three syllables with the stress in the middle, which is where Spanish puts it by default for a word ending in a vowel. English speakers often flatten the first vowel to rih, and both are heard.
Nicknames for Ricardo
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
- 1888
- Most boys named
- 19923,024 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #115reached in 1992
- Change vs 2022
- −9.5%833 in 2025, from 920
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.
Ricardo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Richard in English — same name
- Riccardo in Italian — same name
- Richard in German — same name
- Ricardo in Portuguese — same name
- Ryszard in Polish — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Ricardos among us
people named Ricardo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,051 born in 2025 was named Ricardo
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 Allan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ricardo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Allan climbed just as high around 1940, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Allan's path sketches the road Ricardo is walking now.
Ricardo 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 Ricardo is headed
Ricardo 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.
Ricardo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ricardo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It is at home in Spanish, Portuguese and English without being altered.
- Several short forms are available in each of those languages.
- Middle stress on three syllables is a comfortable and memorable rhythm.
- Ricky will attach itself whether or not the family wants it.
- English speakers will reduce the first vowel, which Spanish speakers may hear as wrong.
- The record holds it for daughters too, though very rarely.
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Ricardo
Masculine · #380 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ricardos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 133,000 people named Ricardo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ricardo in 2025?
- Ricardo ranks #380 among US boy names in 2025, with 833 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ricardo?
- About 1 in every 2,051 US boys born in 2025 was named Ricardo — 833 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ricardo with classmates?
- Ricardo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ricardo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Winston#381 · Daxton#379 · Lawson#381 · Clark#377 · Hugo#377 · Stephen#383 · Desmond#376 · Khalil#384
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ricardo? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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