Ricky
Ricky was given to 248 boys in 2025, #949 among boys’ names; 225,089 Americans have been recorded with it since 1925 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 178,000 Americans named Ricky and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (79% of everyone recorded); the median is 62 years old and half are between 45 and 68.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ricky by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ricky mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ricky is “a diminutive of the male given name Richard.”
/ˈɹɪki/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ricky?
#949 among boys’ names, 2025
Ricky fell from #582 in 2015 to #949 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born fell from 0.25 to 0.15 per 1,000.
13,424 babies in 1958, the peak
Ricky peaked in 1958, when 13,424 babies were given it (13,375 boys, #34 among boys’ names). The 263 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 2% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 248 | #949 | 0.15 |
| 2024 | 302 | #828 | 0.18 |
| 2023 | 270 | #873 | 0.16 |
| 2022 | 292 | #836 | 0.17 |
| 2021 | 323 | #773 | 0.18 |
| 2020 | 366 | #697 | 0.21 |
| 2019 | 402 | #658 | 0.22 |
| 2018 | 368 | #680 | 0.20 |
| 2017 | 366 | #683 | 0.20 |
| 2016 | 448 | #602 | 0.24 |
Every recorded year (101)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 478 | #582 | 0.25 |
| 2014 | 540 | #518 | 0.28 |
| 2013 | 552 | #495 | 0.29 |
| 2012 | 592 | #459 | 0.31 |
| 2011 | 590 | #455 | 0.31 |
| 2010 | 595 | #450 | 0.31 |
| 2009 | 700 | #416 | 0.35 |
| 2008 | 851 | #365 | 0.42 |
| 2007 | 823 | #373 | 0.40 |
| 2006 | 760 | #396 | 0.37 |
| 2005 | 769 | #376 | 0.39 |
| 2004 | 786 | #358 | 0.40 |
| 2003 | 799 | #349 | 0.40 |
| 2002 | 802 | #342 | 0.41 |
| 2001 | 858 | #326 | 0.44 |
| 2000 | 1,025 | #294 | 0.52 |
| 1999 | 1,098 | #271 | 0.57 |
| 1998 | 970 | #292 | 0.51 |
| 1997 | 1,076 | #264 | 0.57 |
| 1996 | 1,197 | #248 | 0.63 |
| 1995 | 1,227 | #237 | 0.64 |
| 1994 | 1,412 | #205 | 0.73 |
| 1993 | 1,442 | #208 | 0.74 |
| 1992 | 1,620 | #191 | 0.81 |
| 1991 | 1,617 | #193 | 0.80 |
| 1990 | 1,759 | #176 | 0.86 |
| 1989 | 1,897 | #159 | 0.95 |
| 1988 | 1,882 | #148 | 1.0 |
| 1987 | 1,854 | #148 | 1.0 |
| 1986 | 1,958 | #144 | 1.1 |
| 1985 | 1,932 | #145 | 1.0 |
| 1984 | 1,981 | #138 | 1.1 |
| 1983 | 2,081 | #128 | 1.2 |
| 1982 | 2,119 | #129 | 1.2 |
| 1981 | 2,221 | #122 | 1.2 |
| 1980 | 2,232 | #122 | 1.3 |
| 1979 | 2,225 | #124 | 1.3 |
| 1978 | 2,017 | #130 | 1.2 |
| 1977 | 1,959 | #136 | 1.2 |
| 1976 | 1,993 | #132 | 1.3 |
| 1975 | 1,918 | #135 | 1.2 |
| 1974 | 2,033 | #129 | 1.3 |
| 1973 | 1,939 | #133 | 1.2 |
| 1972 | 2,236 | #127 | 1.4 |
| 1971 | 2,659 | #121 | 1.5 |
| 1970 | 3,092 | #105 | 1.7 |
| 1969 | 3,415 | #90 | 1.9 |
| 1968 | 4,036 | #70 | 2.3 |
| 1967 | 4,019 | #75 | 2.3 |
| 1966 | 4,680 | #64 | 2.6 |
| 1965 | 5,659 | #57 | 3.0 |
| 1964 | 6,758 | #54 | 3.4 |
| 1963 | 8,114 | #47 | 4.0 |
| 1962 | 8,694 | #50 | 4.2 |
| 1961 | 10,027 | #44 | 4.7 |
| 1960 | 11,000 | #38 | 5.2 |
| 1959 | 13,226 | #34 | 6.2 |
| 1958 | 13,375 | #34 | 6.3 |
| 1957 | 10,574 | #40 | 4.9 |
| 1956 | 8,780 | #43 | 4.2 |
| 1955 | 8,329 | #46 | 4.0 |
| 1954 | 8,164 | #46 | 4.0 |
| 1953 | 6,887 | #51 | 3.5 |
| 1952 | 4,655 | #81 | 2.4 |
| 1951 | 3,073 | #102 | 1.6 |
| 1950 | 2,107 | #128 | 1.2 |
| 1949 | 1,791 | #148 | 1.0 |
| 1948 | 1,600 | #155 | 0.91 |
| 1947 | 1,301 | #173 | 0.71 |
| 1946 | 761 | #220 | 0.47 |
| 1945 | 523 | #252 | 0.39 |
| 1944 | 393 | #302 | 0.29 |
| 1943 | 182 | #465 | 0.13 |
| 1942 | 110 | #602 | 0.08 |
| 1941 | 87 | #658 | 0.07 |
| 1940 | 48 | #927 | 0.04 |
| 1939 | 29 | #1,231 | 0.03 |
| 1938 | 30 | #1,216 | 0.03 |
| 1937 | 19 | #1,622 | 0.02 |
| 1936 | 28 | #1,267 | 0.03 |
| 1935 | 19 | #1,640 | 0.02 |
| 1934 | 20 | #1,598 | 0.02 |
| 1933 | 11 | #2,339 | 0.01 |
| 1932 | 8 | #3,047 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 10 | #2,611 | 0.01 |
| 1930 | 11 | #2,570 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 8 | #3,194 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 10 | #2,809 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,114 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 11 | #2,698 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 6 | #4,108 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Ricky a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ricky has been given almost only to boys: 1,944 girls in 101 years of records.
Girls and boys named Ricky: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ricky, and how old are they?
178,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 79% of the 225,089 Americans ever recorded as Ricky. The median Ricky alive today is 62 years old; half are between 45 and 68.
The 2020 Census counted 146,356 people named Ricky (979 women and girls, 145,377 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 189,237 born in the U.S. The Census count is 23% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 601 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 92,100 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 40,500 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 27,000 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 13,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,020 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Ricky born?
The states with the most babies named Ricky are Texas, California and North Carolina, with 23% of its births recorded by state since 1910.
| State | Since 1910 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 21,701 | #852 | 1.4× |
| California | 17,043 | #636 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 13,087 | #855 | 2.1× |
| Tennessee | 10,666 | #1,020 | 2.3× |
| Georgia | 10,558 | #701 | 1.8× |
| Ohio | 9,835 | #787 | 0.8× |
| Illinois | 9,082 | #1,445 | 0.8× |
| Kentucky | 8,626 | not ranked | 2.1× |
| New York | 7,029 | #1,538 | 0.4× |
| Michigan | 6,881 | #1,085 | 0.7× |
Where Ricky is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ricky is most over-represented in Arkansas: since 1925 it was given 2.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among boys’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Ricky with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 319,668 babies since 1880, Ricky is the most given (70% of them). In 2025 it was given to 263 of their 445 babies (59%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ricky
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ricky and names like it
- Compare Ricky and RickeyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sRicky peaked in 1958.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ricky since 1910.
- The top names of 1958The year the most babies were named Ricky.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Ricky alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with RMost given first.