Humanverse

Ric vs Rickie

American parents have registered 18,237 Rickies since 1880, against 1,270 Rics. Rickie is still ahead, with 27 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Ric against Rickie, 1880 to 2025 0 300 600 900 1.2k 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Ric Rickie

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

Rickie has been the commoner name in every year either was published, 1896 to 2025. The lead has never changed hands.

The closest they came was 1943, when Ric had 13 and Rickie had 38.

Side by side

  Ric Rickie
Total US births 1,27018,237
Most in one year 551,055
Babies in 2025 under 527
Estimated living today 1,00014,000
Median age today 5964
Peak year 19581954
Best rank 1,026th boys218th boys
Rank in 2025 unranked6,446th
First recorded 19421896
Girls / boys 0 / 1,2701,854 / 16,383

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 Rickies 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 Rickie.