Given name & surname
Richter
“one who is hopeful”
Richter is used as a given name and a surname. One English interpretation is “one who is hopeful.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One English interpretation is “one who is hopeful.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is English.
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 2007. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Richter through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 76
- 76 boys · 0 girls
- Most popular year
- 2025
- 11 babies
- 2025
- 11
- #7,568 for boys
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +100%
- Rising fast
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 11 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 7,568 among boys’ names. The recent annual counts are too incomplete to establish a ten-year comparison. Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 145 as a first name in 2020; 28,434 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.
Richter’s family of names
In German usage, Richter has a later derivative in RECTOR. Richter has a related form in Rickter. Richter has a related form in Ricter.
Inner ring: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Around the world
Richter has relatives in 6 languages. Lines run from its English roots to each of them.
Englishwhere Richter comes from · 1 name
Nicknames & forms 6
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Across languages 9
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
- Rectorderivative · English
- ΡίχτερGreek
- Richterováfeminine form
- Ри́хтерRussian
- 릭터Korean
- 리히터Korean
- リクターJapanese
- リヒテルJapanese
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