Ryu
Ryu was given to 59 boys in 2025, #2,352 among boys’ names; 1,690 Americans have been recorded with it since 1985 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,670 Americans named Ryu and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 12 years old and half are between 6 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ryu by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Ryu?
#2,352 among boys’ names, 2025
Ryu fell from #2,346 in 2015 to #2,352 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 29.2 to 34.5 per million.
130 babies in 2012, the peak
Ryu peaked in 2012, when 130 boys were given it, #1,320 among boys’ names. The 59 births of 2025 are 45% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 59 | #2,352 | 34.5 |
| 2024 | 127 | #1,435 | 73.7 |
| 2023 | 75 | #2,027 | 43.8 |
| 2022 | 73 | #2,076 | 41.8 |
| 2021 | 77 | #1,954 | 44.0 |
| 2020 | 72 | #1,992 | 41.7 |
| 2019 | 68 | #2,126 | 37.9 |
| 2018 | 54 | #2,438 | 29.7 |
| 2017 | 76 | #1,911 | 41.1 |
| 2016 | 72 | #2,005 | 37.9 |
Every recorded year (34)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 56 | #2,346 | 29.2 |
| 2014 | 73 | #1,974 | 38.0 |
| 2013 | 76 | #1,874 | 40.2 |
| 2012 | 130 | #1,320 | 68.5 |
| 2011 | 73 | #1,918 | 38.4 |
| 2010 | 63 | #2,138 | 32.8 |
| 2009 | 61 | #2,196 | 30.8 |
| 2008 | 53 | #2,426 | 26.0 |
| 2007 | 53 | #2,433 | 25.5 |
| 2006 | 43 | #2,728 | 20.9 |
| 2005 | 32 | #3,219 | 16.0 |
| 2004 | 26 | #3,613 | 13.1 |
| 2003 | 27 | #3,423 | 13.7 |
| 2002 | 23 | #3,753 | 11.8 |
| 2001 | 19 | #4,258 | 9.8 |
| 2000 | 35 | #2,662 | 17.8 |
| 1999 | 20 | #3,806 | 10.4 |
| 1998 | 13 | #5,106 | 6.8 |
| 1997 | 15 | #4,412 | 8.0 |
| 1996 | 10 | #5,886 | 5.3 |
| 1995 | 9 | #6,311 | 4.7 |
| 1993 | 10 | #5,692 | 5.1 |
| 1988 | 7 | #6,294 | 3.7 |
| 1985 | 5 | #7,377 | 2.7 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Ryu a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Ryu has been given almost only to boys: 5 girls in 34 years of records.
Girls and boys named Ryu: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ryu, and how old are they?
1,670 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,690 Americans ever recorded as Ryu. The median Ryu alive today is 12 years old; half are between 6 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 1,219 people named Ryu (29 women and girls, 1,190 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 1,209 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 39 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 677 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 956 |
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 Ryu born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 16 | #1,231 | 1.9× |
| Texas | 9 | #1,883 | 0.9× |
Where Ryu is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ryu is most over-represented in California: since 1985 it was given 1.9 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 Ryu 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 7 names spelled alike, given to 12,108 babies since 1880, Ryu is the second most given (14% of them). In 2025 it was given to 59 of their 849 babies (6.9%), the third most given that year.
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 Ryu
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 Ryu and names like it
- Compare Ryu and RioBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sRyu peaked in 2012.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ryu since 1910.
- The top names of 2012The year the most babies were named Ryu.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ryu alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.