Riccardo
Masculine · “Brave ruler”
Riccardo is Richard in Italian, and the Germanic compound underneath is one of the plainest in the language: rīk is a ruler, hard is brave. Italian doubles the c to keep the first vowel short and adds a vowel at the end.
How old is the name Riccardo?
Riccardo first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Riccardo alive today was born around 1979, making them about 46 years old. About 1,400 people named Riccardo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Riccardo most popular?
Riccardo peaked in 1954, reaching #1333 nationally. Today it ranks #5608, 4,275 places below that high. See the whole 1954 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ricohard to Riccardo
The story of Riccardo
The Normans brought Richard to England and three English kings carried it, of whom Richard I spent six months of a ten-year reign in the country. Italian took Riccardo from the same Germanic stock through Norman Sicily and through general European circulation; Riccardo Muti and Riccardo Chailly have made it familiar in music. Italian migration brought it to America, and the peak in 1954 belongs to Italian-American families of the second and third generation who kept the Italian form rather than settling for Richard.
Meaning
Brave ruler, powerful and hardy
From the Germanic Ricohard, from rīk, ruler or power, and hard, brave or hardy. The reading is settled and both elements are transparent; the same rīk gives Frederick and Ulrich, the same hard gives Bernard and Gerard. Italian Riccardo doubles the c, which is an orthographic rule rather than an etymological feature.
How the name formed
- Ricohard
- Richard
- Riccardo
Related forms: Riccardo · Ricardo · Richard · Richard · Ricardo
Pronouncing Riccardo
ree-KAR-doh
Three syllables, stress in the middle, with the double c held in Italian. Spanish Ricardo has a single c and is otherwise said the same way.
Nicknames for Riccardo
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 197937 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1333reached in 1954
- Change vs 2023
- +14.3%16 in 2025, from 14
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.
Riccardo in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Riccardo in Italian — same name
- Ricardo in Spanish — spelling variant
- Richard in English — related form
- Richard in German — related form
- Ricardo in Portuguese — spelling variant
Riccardos among us
people named Riccardo are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 106,755 born in 2025 was named Riccardo
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Riccardo
- #5608
- Riccardo on the 2025 chart
- #357
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Riccardo went to 16 boys in 2025, but Ricardo is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 849, which makes it the 357th most-given boys’ name of the year — 5,251 places above the chart.
- Ricardo833
- Riccardo16
About 1 boy in 2,012 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 106,755 for Riccardo 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 Waldon test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Riccardo's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Waldon climbed just as high around 1922, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Waldon's path sketches the road Riccardo is walking now.
Riccardo 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
Riccardo beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Riccardo in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The Germanic meaning is settled and both elements are documented.
- Ricky and Rico are both ready-made short forms.
- It connects to one of the largest name families in Europe.
- Ricardo is the Spanish spelling and will be written for it.
- The doubled c is an Italian rule that English readers will not reproduce.
- It is strongly associated with the Italian-American generations before 1970.
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Riccardo
Masculine · #5608 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Riccardos are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Riccardo are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Riccardo?
- Riccardo is one of 2 recorded spellings. Ricardo is the more common one — 833 births in 2025 against 16 for Riccardo.
- How popular is the name Riccardo in 2025?
- Riccardo ranks #5608 among US boy names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Riccardo?
- About 1 in every 106,755 US boys born in 2025 was named Riccardo — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Riccardo with classmates?
- Riccardo will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Riccardo
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Rolland#5608 · Llewellyn#5608 · Arlie#5608 · Gerrit#5608 · Vinson#5608 · Georgie#5608 · Wally#5608 · Webb#5608
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Riccardo? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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