Rihaan
Masculine · “sweet basil”
Rihaan is a South Asian spelling of an Arabic word for sweet basil and for fragrant plants generally. It is a word of pleasure rather than of power, and it appears in the Qur'an among the things given in abundance.
How old is the name Rihaan?
Rihaan first appears in US birth records in 2011 — 14 years ago. The typical Rihaan is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Rihaan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rihaan most popular?
Rihaan peaked in 2019, reaching #1954 nationally. Today it ranks #3128, 1,174 places below that high. See the whole 2019 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From rayhan to Rihaan
The story of Rihaan
Rayhan is old in Arabic and appears in classical poetry and in the Qur'an, where it stands among the gifts of a garden. The word traveled with Arabic into Persian, Turkish and Urdu, and each language wrote it slightly differently: Reyhan in Turkish, Rehan and Rihaan in Urdu and in Indian English. The doubled a of Rihaan is a South Asian convention for marking the long vowel, and it is the spelling most often chosen by families from India and Pakistan in American records.
Meaning
sweet basil, fragrance
From Arabic rayhan, an aromatic herb, chiefly basil; by extension any sweet-smelling plant, and figuratively a source of comfort.
How the name formed
- rayhan
- Rihaan
Related forms: Rayhan · Reyhan · Rehan · Reyhan
Pronouncing Rihaan
ri-HAAN
Two syllables with the stress on the long second. English speakers often say REE-han.
Nicknames for Rihaan
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
- 2011
- Most boys named
- 201975 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1954reached in 2019
- Change vs 2024
- −24.0%38 in 2025, from 50
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.
Rihaan in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rayhan in Arabic — same name
- Reyhan in Turkish — same name
- Rehan in Urdu — spelling variant
- Reyhan in Persian — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New Jersey.
Rihaans among us
people named Rihaan are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 44,949 born in 2025 was named Rihaan
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Rihaan
- #3128
- Rihaan on the 2025 chart
- #870
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Rihaan went to 38 boys in 2025, but Rihan is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 58, which makes it the 870th most-given boys’ name of the year — 2,258 places above the chart.
- Rihaan38
- Rihan20
About 1 boy in 29,450 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 44,949 for Rihaan 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 Jamarian test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rihaan's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jamarian climbed just as high around 2004, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jamarian's path sketches the road Rihaan is walking now.
Rihaan 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 Rihaan is headed
Rihaan is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low 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.
Rihaan beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rihaan in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A concrete, sensory meaning — a herb you can hold — rather than an abstraction.
- Recognized across Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Urdu in one spelling or another.
- The sound is easy for English speakers even where the spelling is not familiar.
- Rehan, Rayhan and Reyhan are the same name, and relatives may each use a different one.
- The doubled a puzzles American forms and readers, who will try RY-han.
- In Turkish and Persian the same word is also given to girls, which is worth knowing.
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Rihaan
Masculine · #3128 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rihaans are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Rihaan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Rihaan?
- Rihaan is the most-used spelling in US records — 38 of the 58 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Rihan.
- How popular is the name Rihaan in 2025?
- Rihaan ranks #3128 among US boy names in 2025, with 38 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rihaan?
- About 1 in every 44,949 US boys born in 2025 was named Rihaan — 38 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rihaan with classmates?
- Rihaan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rihaan
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Hamilton#3128 · Juanpablo#3128 · Courtney#3128 · Baxter#3128 · Javen#3128 · Hal#3128 · Dawud#3128 · Tavion#3128
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rihaan? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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