Names/R

Ryan

boys’ nameFallingCompare

Ryan is ranked 87th among boys in 2024 (3,892 births). Its best rank was 11th, in 1986, 1990–1991.

Rank in 2024
#87down 4 from 2023
Births in 2024
3,8920.23% of boys
Peak year
198529,909 births
Best rank
#11first in 1986
Since 1906
987,785people given the name
Babies named Ryan, by year of birthboys
012.5k25k37.5k50k18801900192019401960198020002020

The story in the numbers

960,560 boys have been named Ryan in the United States since 1906, according to Social Security records. The busiest single year was 1985, with 29,909 births — 1.6% of all boys recorded that year.

It is falling: its share of births is 60% or less of what it was ten years ago (rank 37 → 87).

Half of everyone given the name was born by 1991, and the 1980s alone account for 29%. It has spent 80 of 145 years in the top 1,000, 54 of them in the top 100.

It is overwhelmingly a boy’s name: 27,225 girls have also been given it, 2.8% of the total.

Rank among boys, year by year

Higher on the chart = more popularrank (gaps = outside the top 1,000)
#1#250#500#750#100018801900192019401960198020002020

By decade

Decadeboys named Ryan
1900s10
1910s55
1920s111
1930s134
1940s500
1950s1,961
1960s11,327
1970s139,643
1980s278,954
1990s241,240
2000s173,238
2010s90,989
2020s22,398

In 1985, its biggest year

Ryan was the 12th most given boy’s name that year. The top five boys’ names of 1985 were Michael, Christopher, Matthew, Joshua and Daniel. See all of 1985.

Names that rose and fell with Ryan

Same sex, most similar popularity curve over 145 years, in five-year steps — the shape of the line, not the size.

Other spellings in the data

What this page does not tell you. The Social Security data records how many babies were given a name, not what the name means or where it comes from — so neither do we. Counts cover people with a Social Security number; names given to fewer than five babies in a year are withheld. More on the data.