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Boy · Irish
Ryan
Say it: RY-un
Meaning
From the Irish surname Ó Riain 'descendant of Rian'; Rian is an old Irish name of uncertain meaning, and the popular gloss 'little king' is speculative.
Uncertainseveral explanations, none settled.
A rare first name until the 1950s, it was a US top-20 boys' name from the late 1970s into the 2000s.
Its wave through time
Most used in the 1980s
In the United States
- 968,669 babies given this name since 1906
- At its height in 1985, about 1 in 62 boys
- 5,964 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Rian, Ryne
Famous bearers
- Ryan Gosling, Canadian actor
- Ryan O'Neal, American actor
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- The Irish annals and early Irish literature
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.