Ricci
Feminine · “Curly”
Ricci is given to both — 854 girls and 879 boys since 1880. See Ricci as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Ricci is an Italian surname meaning curls, and it belongs to a Jesuit who spent twenty-seven years in China and drew the map that showed the Chinese court where Europe was — with China in the middle, because he understood his audience.
How old is the name Ricci?
Ricci first appears in US birth records in 1945 — 80 years ago. The typical Ricci alive today was born around 1982, making them about 43 years old. About 800 people named Ricci are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ricci most popular?
Ricci peaked in 1980, reaching #2128 nationally. See the whole 1980 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Ricci
Matteo Ricci arrived in China, learned the language and the classics well enough to argue in them, dressed as a Confucian scholar, and spent the rest of his life in the country — the first European allowed to live in Beijing and be buried there. The map he made for the court is the famous object: a world map with the Americas and Europe on it, annotated in Chinese, and deliberately drawn with the Pacific at the center so that China sat in the middle of the world rather than off the edge. It was both a courtesy and a piece of cartographic honesty, since the projection is no less accurate that way, and it is the reason the map was studied rather than dismissed.
Meaning
Curly
The Italian word means curls or curly hair, and it is one of a very large class of Italian surnames that began as physical descriptions — the short one, the dark one, the left-handed one. The reading is not in dispute.
Pronouncing Ricci
REE-chee
Two syllables, stress at the front. Italian says the cc as a single ch sound; Americans often say RIH-see, which is not how the surname is said.
Nicknames for Ricci
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
- 1945
- Most girls named
- 198048 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2128reached in 1980
- Change vs 2021
- 0.0%5 in 2022, from 5
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.
Ricci in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ricci in Italian — same name
Riccis among us
people named Ricci are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Ricci sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is short, musical and easy for an English speaker.
- The meaning is concrete and pleasant.
- It carries a genuinely remarkable namesake for anyone who looks.
- Americans will say the double c as an s, which Italian speakers will correct.
- The spelling is recorded almost evenly for boys and girls, so it signals nothing about sex on a form.
- It reads as a surname to anyone who knows the name.
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What they receive
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Ricci
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Riccis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Ricci are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ricci in 2025?
- Ricci is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Ricci with classmates?
- Ricci will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More R names
The most-given names starting with R, all years combined.
Ruth#173 · Rebecca#349 · Rachel#250 · Rose#114 · Ruby#64 · Robin#704 · Rita#1285 · Rhonda#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ricci? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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