Rihanna
Rihanna was given to 87 girls in 2025, #2,150 among girls’ names; 6,617 Americans have been recorded with it since 2000 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,570 Americans named Rihanna and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 17 years old and half are between 12 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rihanna by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Rihanna mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Rihanna is “a female given name from Arabic.” Its etymology gives the sense “basil; myrtle” (رَيْحَان).
From Arabic رَيْحَانَة (rayḥāna, singulative of رَيْحَان (rayḥān, “basil; myrtle”)).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Rihanna?
#2,150 among girls’ names, 2025
Rihanna fell from #1,335 in 2015 to #2,150 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 99.7 to 54.1 per million.
1,080 babies in 2008, the peak
Rihanna peaked in 2008, when 1,080 babies were given it (1,075 girls, #311 among girls’ names). The 87 births of 2025 are 8% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 87 | #2,150 | 0.05 |
| 2024 | 115 | #1,766 | 0.07 |
| 2023 | 165 | #1,371 | 0.10 |
| 2022 | 127 | #1,666 | 0.08 |
| 2021 | 133 | #1,581 | 0.08 |
| 2020 | 144 | #1,492 | 0.09 |
| 2019 | 129 | #1,646 | 0.08 |
| 2018 | 166 | #1,363 | 0.10 |
| 2017 | 162 | #1,414 | 0.09 |
| 2016 | 178 | #1,334 | 0.10 |
Every recorded year (22)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 178 | #1,335 | 0.10 |
| 2014 | 209 | #1,176 | 0.12 |
| 2013 | 269 | #940 | 0.15 |
| 2012 | 323 | #831 | 0.18 |
| 2011 | 381 | #726 | 0.22 |
| 2010 | 500 | #587 | 0.28 |
| 2009 | 825 | #389 | 0.45 |
| 2008 | 1,075 | #311 | 0.57 |
| 2007 | 789 | #415 | 0.41 |
| 2006 | 572 | #531 | 0.30 |
| 2005 | 79 | #2,292 | 0.04 |
| 2000 | 6 | #14,617 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Rihanna a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Rihanna has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 22 years of records.
Girls and boys named Rihanna: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rihanna, and how old are they?
6,570 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 6,617 Americans ever recorded as Rihanna. The median Rihanna alive today is 17 years old; half are between 12 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 4,637 people named Rihanna (4,623 women and girls, 14 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,840 born in the U.S. The Census count is 21% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 4,520 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,050 |
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 Rihanna born?
The states with the most babies named Rihanna are New York, Texas and California, with 60% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 15 | #1,020 | 1.5× |
| Texas | 11 | #2,010 | 1.1× |
| California | 6 | #3,030 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 6 | #2,097 | 1.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | #1,575 | 0.7× |
| Massachusetts | 5 | #984 | 0.8× |
| Washington | 5 | #1,211 | 0.5× |
Where Rihanna is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Rihanna is most over-represented in Florida: since 2000 it was given 1.6 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 girls’ 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 Rihanna 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 21,876 babies since 1880, Rihanna is the most given (30% of them). In 2025 it was given to 87 of their 222 babies (39%), 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 Rihanna
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 Rihanna and names like it
- Compare Rihanna and RhiannaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sRihanna peaked in 2008.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rihanna since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Rihanna: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2008The year the most babies were named Rihanna.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Rihanna alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with RMost given first.