Richard

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Richard
Richard I of England.png
17th-century portrait of Richard the Lionheart, a 12th-century King of England
PronunciationEnglish: /ˈrɪərd/
French: [ʁiʃaʁ]
German: [ˈʁɪçaʁt]
Czech: [ˈrɪxart]
GenderMale
Origin
Word/nameOld Frankish
Meaning'strong in rule'
Other names
Nickname(s)Richy, Rich, Rick, Dick, Dickie, Dicken, Reeks, Riccardo, Richie, Ricardo, Rico, Ricky, Richi, Rickey, Rickard

Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic *rīk- 'ruler, leader, king' and *hardu- 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'strong in rule'.[1][2] Nicknames include "Richie", "Dick", "Dickon", "Dickie",[3] "Rich", "Rick", "Rico", "Ricky",[1] and more.

Richard is a common English, German and French male name. It's also used in many more languages, particularly Germanic, such as Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Dutch, as well as other languages including Irish, Scottish, Welsh and Finnish. Richard is cognate with variants of the name in other European languages, such as the Swedish "Rickard", the Catalan "Ricard" and the Italian "Riccardo", among others (see comprehensive variant list below).

People named Richard[edit]

Rulers and heads of state[edit]

Aristocrats and non-ruling royals[edit]

Religious figures[edit]

  • Saint Richard (disambiguation), several saints
  • Richard Baxter (1615–1691), English Puritan church leader, poet and hymn-writer
  • Richard of Dover (died 1184), Benedictine monk and Archbishop of Canterbury
  • Richard Foxe (c. 1448 – 1528), Bishop of Exeter, Bath and Wells, Durham, and Winchester, Lord Privy Seal, and founder of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
  • Richard Furman (1755–1825), American Baptist leader, first president of the Triennial Convention, the first nationwide Baptist association
  • Richard von Greiffenklau zu Vollrads (1467–1531), Archbishop-Elector of Trier from 1511 to 1531
  • Richard of Poitiers (died c. 1174), French monk, author of historical works, treatises and poems
  • Richard Poore (died 1237), Bishop of Salisbury and Durham, who helped found Salisbury Cathedral in its present location
  • Richard Swinefield (died 1317), Bishop of Hereford

In politics and government[edit]

  • Richard Acland (1906–1990), one of the founders of the British Common Wealth Party and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
  • Richard Aluwihare (1895–1976), Sri Lankan diplomat
  • Dick Armey (born 1940), American politician, member US House of Representatives from Texas (1985–2003)
  • Richard Armitage (politician) (born 1945), American government official, Deputy Secretary of State (2001–2005)
  • Richard Arrington Jr. (born 1934), first African-American mayor of the city of Birmingham, Alabama
  • R. B. Bennett (1870–1947), Canadian politician, Prime Minister of Canada (1930–1935)
  • Richard Blumenthal (born 1946), American politician, US Senator from Connecticut (2010–present)
  • Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington (1612–1698), Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and a cavalier
  • Richard Leslie Brohier (1892–1980), Sri Lankan Burgher land surveyor and author
  • Richard Burr (born 1955), American politician, US Senator from North Carolina (2005–present)
  • Dick Cheney (born 1941), American politician, Congressman from Wyoming (1979–1989), Secretary of Defense (1989–1993) and Vice President (2001–2009)
  • Dick Clark (senator) (born 1928), American politician, US Senator from Iowa (1973–1979)
  • Richard Court (born 1947), Australian politician, Premier of Western Australia (1993–2001)
  • Richard J. Daley (1902–1976), American politician, Mayor of Chicago (1955–1976)
  • Richard M. Daley (born 1942), American politician, Illinois state senator (1972–1980) and Mayor of Chicago (1989–2011)
  • Richard Darman (1943–2008), American politician, White House Staff Secretary (1981–1985), Deputy Secretary of the Treasury (1985–1987) and OMB Director (1989–1993)
  • Dick Durbin (born 1944), American politician, US senator from Illinois (1997–present), Democratic Senate Whip (2005–present)
  • Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple (1711–1779), British politician and associate and brother-in-law of William Pitt
  • Richard J. Gordon (born 1945) Filipino politician and broadcaster
  • Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, British nobleman and politician
  • Richard Hatfield (1931–1991), Canadian politician, Premier of New Brunswick (1970–1987)
  • Richard Helms (1913–2002), American government official, Director of Central Intelligence (1966–1973), US Ambassador to Iran (1973–1977)
  • Junius Richard Jayewardene (1906–1996), President of Sri Lanka from 1978 to 1989
  • Richard Johnson (judge) (1937–2019), Irish jurist, President of the Irish High Court (2006–2009)
  • Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh (1641–1712), Irish peer, and politician both in the Parliaments of England and Ireland
  • Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744–1817) Anglo-Irish politician, writer and inventor
  • Richard Lugar (1932–2019), American politician, US Senator from Indiana (1977–2011)
  • Richard Mentor Johnson (1780–1850), American politician, US Congressman from Kentucky (1807–19 and 1829–33), US Senator from Kentucky (1819–1829) and Vice President (1837–41)
  • Dick Murphy, (born 1942) American politician who served as the 33rd Mayor of San Diego, California
  • Richard L. Murphy (1875–1936), Democratic US Senator from Iowa
  • Richard W. Murphy (born 1929), American diplomat and career member of the foreign service
  • Richard Nixon (1913–1994), American politician, President of the United States (1969–1974) and Vice President (1953–1961)
  • Richard Pathirana (1938-2008), Sri Lankan Sinhala politician and educationist
  • Richard Perle (born 1941), American government official and foreign policy specialist, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs 1981–1987
  • Richard F. Pettigrew (1848–1926), American lawyer, surveyor, and land developer
  • Richard Abusua-Yedom Quarshie, Ghanaian businessman and diplomat
  • Richard Rush (1780–1859), American politician, US Attorney General (1814–1817) and Secretary of the Treasury (1825–1829)
  • Richard "Rick" Santorum, American politician, attorney and political commentator
  • Rick Scott (born 1952), American politician, US Senator from Florida (2019–present), Governor of Florida (2011–2019)
  • Richard Seddon (1845–1906), New Zealand politician, Prime Minister of New Zealand (1893–1906)
  • Richard Gotabhaya Senanayake (1911-1970), Sri Lankan Sinhala Cabinet Minister
  • Richard Shelby (born 1934), American politician, US Senator from Alabama (1987–present)
  • Richard Stockton (U.S. senator) (1764–1828), American politician, US Senator from New Jersey (1796–1799), Member of the US House of Representatives (1813–1815)
  • Dick Thornburgh (1932–2020), American politician, Governor of Pennsylvania (1979–1987) and US Attorney General (1988–1991)
  • Richard Tötterman (1926–2020), Finnish diplomat
  • Richard Udugama, (1911–1995), major general, Commander of the Sri Lanka Army from 1964 to 1966, politician
  • Richard von Weizsäcker (1920–2015), German politician, Governing Mayor of West Berlin (1981–1984) and President of the Federal Republic of Germany (1984–1994)
  • Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley (1760–1842), Anglo-Irish Governor-General of India, Foreign Secretary in the British Cabinet and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
  • Richard Wild (judge) (1912–1978), New Zealand jurist, Chief Justice of New Zealand (1966–1978)

In Business[edit]

  • Richard L. Bloch (born 1929), American investor, real estate developer, banker, and philanthropist
  • Richard Branson (born 1950), British businessman and founder of the Virgin Group of companies
  • Richard Deeb (1924–1990), real estate developer
  • Richard DeVos (born 1926), American businessman and co-founder of Amway
  • Richard Jacobs (businessman) (1925–2009), real estate businessman and owner of the Cleveland Indians baseball team
  • Richard Morefield (1929–2010), American diplomat
  • Richard Oetker (born 1951), German businessman, CEO of Dr. Oetker since 2010
  • Richard Rawlings (born 1969), star of American television show Fast N' Loud, owner of Gas Monkey garage, Gas Monkey Bar N' Grill and Gas Monkey Live
  • Richard Warren Sears (1863–1914), co-founder of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and considered a promotional genius
  • Richard Velazquez (born 1973), PepsiCo executive and first automotive designer at Porsche AG (Germany) of Puerto Rican descent
  • Richard Wilding, British businessman and academic

In music[edit]

Composers[edit]

  • Richard Dybeck (1811–1877), Swedish lyricist who wrote the national anthem of Sweden
  • Richard Heuberger (1850–1924), Austrian composer of operas and operettas, music critic, and teacher
  • Richard D. James (musician) (born 1971), British composer and electronic musician, records music as Aphex Twin, among other monikers
  • Richard Mohaupt (1904–1957), German-American composer and conductor
  • Dick Oatts, American jazz saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and educator
  • Richard Strauss (1864–1949), German composer and conductor
  • Richard Wagner (1813–1883), German composer, writer, conductor and theatre director
  • Rich Batsford pianist, composer and singer songwriter

Singers and musicians[edit]

Actors[edit]

In film and television[edit]

Explorers[edit]

  • Richard R. Arnold (born 1963), American astronaut
  • Richard Francis Burton (1821–1890), British geographer, explorer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer and diplomat
  • Richard E. Byrd (1888–1957), US Navy rear admiral, aviator and explorer
  • Richard Masters (aka William Marsters), English sailor, cooper, trader and explorer
  • Dick Rutkowski, diving medicine pioneer

Scientists[edit]

In sports[edit]

Soldiers, pilots, other military/security[edit]

Writers and journalists[edit]

Crime[edit]

Other[edit]

Fictional characters[edit]

Cognates/transliterations[edit]

In Indo-European languages[edit]

Baltic[edit]

Celtic[edit]

Germanic[edit]

Romance[edit]

Slavic[edit]

Other Indo-European[edit]

In Semitic languages[edit]

  • Arabic: ريتشارد (Rytshrd, Ritshrd, Rytshard, Ritshard)
  • Hebrew: ריצ'רד (Richard)

In Turkic languages[edit]

In Uralic languages[edit]

In other languages[edit]

  • Chinese: 理查德 (Lǐchádé), 理查 (Lǐchá)

Short forms[edit]

  • Cornish: Hicca
  • Czech: Ríša, Rik (Riker)
  • Dutch: Ries
  • English: Rick, Rich, Richi, Dick, Dickie, Rik, Ric, Dickon
  • Estonian: Riho
  • Esperanto: Rikĉjo
  • Finnish: Riku
  • Greek: Στούκος (Stoúkos)
  • Hungarian: Ricsi, Ricsike, Rics
  • Icelandic: Rikki
  • Latvian: Ričs
  • Lithuanian: Ryčka, Rytis
  • Polish: Rysio, Rysiek, Ryś
  • Portuguese: Rico, Ric
  • Slovak: Rišo, Riško, Riči
  • Spanish: Cayo (Guatemala)
  • Swiss/German: Richi

Nicknames[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. p. 381. ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  2. ^ "Richard". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  3. ^ Hanks, Patrick; Hardcastle, Kate; Hodges, Flavia (2006). A Dictionary of First Names. Oxford University Press. p. 154. ISBN 978-0-19-861060-1. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
  4. ^ M. Petrossian (ed.). New Dictionary Armenian-English. Librairie de Beyrouth. p. 772. Retrieved 23 March 2013.