Given name & surname

Rives

“one who lives by the riverbank”

Rives is used as a given name and a surname. One French interpretation is “one who lives by the riverbank.”

Meaning & origin

What it means

One French interpretation is “one who lives by the riverbank.”

Where it comes from

An origin associated with this spelling is French.

The story

Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1931. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.

From dated birth records

Rives through the years

Babies since 1880
15
15 boys · 0 girls
Most popular year
1931
5 babies
2025
5
#13,485 for boys
2021–25 vs 2016–20
—
Too few births to compare
024619401960198020002025Highest share 19312.9
Rives in U.S. Social Security birth records, 1931–2025, per million boys born. Years with fewer than five births for a sex are not published and appear as zero. Use the arrow keys to step through years.

By the numbers

In 2025, this name appeared in 5 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 13,485 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 3,271 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.

Rives’s family of names

Rives has a related form in Ryves. In Greek usage, Rives as a surname is a transliteration of Ρίβες. In Russian usage, Rives as a surname is a transliteration of Ривес.

Walk Rives’s family in the name graph

RivesРивесΡίβεςRyves

Inner ring: spellings · outer: nicknames and forms.

Hover or tab through the constellation to see how each name is related. Bigger dots are names more people in the U.S. share.

Nicknames & forms 1

Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.

Spellings & scripts 2

The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.

Similar names

If you love Rives, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.

French

Roberts

Roberts is a given name from Anglo-Norman. It is used in English and Latvian.

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

Spanish · Old-fashioned

Refugio

“one who provides shelter”

15Very rareSteady

>99% boys

German · Old-fashioned

Richmond

“from the wealthy hill” · “a powerful protector”

21RareEasing

>99% boys

Occitan

Lannes

Lannes is a surname from French, ultimately from Occitan. It is used in English and French.

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

French · Old-fashioned

Lowell

“resembling a young wolf”

28RareSteady

99% boys · 1% girls

Spanish · Old-fashioned

Cipriano

“a man from Cyprus”

18Very rareSteady

>99% boys

French

Brevard

Brevard is a surname from French.

0Not recently recorded

>99% boys

English · Virtue

Ray

“a wise protector” · “son of grace”

53UncommonSteady

93% boys · 7% girls

Sibling ideas

Names that share Rives’s feel without repeating its first letter or rhyming with it.