Humanverse

Ric vs Rickey

American parents have registered 62,391 Rickeys since 1880, against 1,270 Rics. Rickey is still ahead, with 45 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ric against Rickey, 1880 to 2025 0 1k 2k 3k 4k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ric Rickey

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Rickey has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1924 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1943, when Ric had 13 and Rickey had 111.

Side by side

  Ric Rickey
Total US births 1,27062,391
Most in one year 553,818
Babies in 2025 under 545
Estimated living today 1,00048,000
Median age today 5964
Peak year 19581958
Best rank 1,026th boys106th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked2,798th
First recorded 19421924
Girls / boys 0 / 1,270674 / 61,717

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Rickeys alive today are over 64; half the Rics are over 59. That is 5 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Where each one is strongest

How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Ric and Rickey.