Given name & surname · also Old French
Richards
Richards is a given name from Old French, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic.
Meaning & origin
Where it comes from
Richards comes from Old French, and ultimately from Proto-West Germanic.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
How it developed
From Old French Richard, from Medieval Latin Richardus, from Middle High German Rihard, from Old High German Rihhart, from Proto-West Germanic *Rīkuhardu, built from Old High German *rīh + hart.
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1912. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Richards through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 119
- 119 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 1925
- 11 babies
- 2025
- 0
- Outside the ranked list
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- —
- Too few births to compare
By the numbers
The most recent published U.S. birth count for boys is 5 in 1983. Later missing counts do not mean the name went unused. Its largest published annual count for boys was 11 in 1925. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 338 as a first name in 2020; 126,138 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
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