Ryan: Popularity, Rank and History

By the Baby Name Data Editorial Team · Last updated: October 2026

Ryan has been recorded in U.S. Social Security Administration baby name data in 113 of the 145 years covered by this site, first appearing in 1906 and most recently in 2024. Across that whole span, parents recorded 987,785 births with this name, split between 27,225 girls and 960,560 boys. Because the larger side of that split is boys, this page follows the boys ranking table as its main story, while still reporting the combined total above so the name can be compared fairly with every other name in the top 100 all-time list. Every figure here is a direct count from the SSA file: there are no estimates, no projections, and no names added from any other source.

The single biggest year for Ryan was 1985, when 29,909 boys received the name and it reached rank 12 nationally. A name's peak year matters because it shows the moment when the name competed most successfully against every other name chosen that year. Rank and count tell slightly different stories: the count can rise simply because more babies were born overall, while the rank and the share of births strip out that effect. In 1985, Ryan accounted for 1.62% of all recorded boys births, which is the cleanest measure of how dominant it was at its height compared with peaks reached in smaller or larger birth years.

Ryan by decade

The decade table below is where the long story of Ryan becomes easiest to read. A decade total smooths out single-year spikes and shows whether a name was a brief fashion or a durable fixture. Names that hold high decade totals for forty or fifty years behave very differently from names that post one enormous decade and then fade, and Ryan can be placed on that spectrum directly from these ten-year sums and the best rank it managed inside each decade.

In the 1880s, Ryan recorded no births at five or more in any single year for boys, so it does not appear in the released counts for that decade. In the 1890s, Ryan recorded no births at five or more in any single year for boys, so it does not appear in the released counts for that decade. In the 1900s, Ryan recorded 10 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 844, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1910s, Ryan recorded 55 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 1708, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1920s, Ryan recorded 111 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 2044, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1930s, Ryan recorded 134 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 1483, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1940s, Ryan recorded 500 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 680, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. In the 1950s, Ryan recorded 1,961 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 397, placing it well down the popularity order for that period.

In the 1960s, Ryan recorded 11,327 births for boys across the decade, with a best annual rank of 131, placing it well down the popularity order for that period. During the 1970s, Ryan stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 14 and 139,643 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1980s, Ryan stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 11 and 278,954 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 1990s, Ryan stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 11 and 241,240 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 2000s, Ryan stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 12 and 173,238 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 2010s, Ryan stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 23 and 90,989 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table. During the 2020s, Ryan stayed inside the top 100 for boys, with a best rank of 57 and 22,398 births recorded over the ten years, a solid and visible presence without quite reaching the very top of the table.

Rank history in selected years

This table samples the record at intervals so the shape of the history is visible at a glance: the birth count, the national rank among boys, and the share of all boys births for that year. Shares are included deliberately. In the 1880 file the recorded birth population is far smaller than in the peak birth years of the twentieth century, so a modest count in 1880 can represent a larger share, and a larger rank, than the same count would earn today. Reading count, rank, and share together is the method this site recommends on every page, and it is explained in full on the methodology page linked in the footer.

Recent years and the other side of the table

Between 2010 and 2024 the annual count moved from 11,981 to 3,892, a change of -67.5 percent, which is the clearest short-hand for where Ryan stands right now: losing ground in the most recent data. In 2000, for comparison, Ryan recorded 20,269 births for boys, and in 2010 it recorded 11,981. Placing 2024 between those two reference points shows whether the latest figure is part of a steady climb, a steady slide, or a plateau after earlier movement. None of these short windows should be read on their own: a name recovering from a low base can post large percentage gains while still ranking modestly, and a name easing down from a peak can lose percentage points while remaining one of the most used names in the country.

Ryan also appears on the girls side of the file, with 27,225 recorded births between 1880 and 2024. That secondary use is much smaller than the 960,560 births recorded for boys, and SSA ranks each sex separately, so the rank history above follows the boys table only. Counting both sides together, Ryan totals 987,785 recorded births, which is the figure that places it at number 44 on this site's all-time combined list. Readers comparing names should keep the two sides separate, because a rank earned among boys and a rank earned among girls describe two different fields of competing names in the same year.

To explore further, compare Ryan with the full rankings for its peak year (1985) through the years index, browse the decade rankings, or return to the complete A–Z list of name pages. The state pages show how the biggest states ranked names in 2024, which often differs from the national order in the smaller details even when the same few names lead both tables.

Frequently asked questions

How many babies named Ryan were born in 2024?
In 2024 the SSA recorded 3,892 boys named Ryan, ranked 87 among boys that year.

When was Ryan most popular?
Ryan peaked in 1985 with 29,909 births for boys, reaching rank 12 that year in SSA records.

How many people named Ryan appear in SSA records since 1880?
SSA records show 987,785 births named Ryan from 1880 through 2024, counting both sexes together.

Disclaimer: Baby Name Data publishes statistics drawn from U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records. Figures are counts of Social Security card applications by year of birth and are shown for general information only. Counts below five in any year, sex, or state are not released by the SSA and are not estimated here. Nothing on this page is advice about what to name a child.

Data: U.S. Social Security Administration baby name records, 1880–2024, retrieved October 2026. Source: ssa.gov/oact/babynames/