Jump to content

Richard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard
17th-century portrait of Richard the Lionheart, a 12th-century King of England
PronunciationEnglish: /ˈrɪərd/
French: [ʁiʃaʁ]
German: [ˈʁɪçaʁt]
Czech: [ˈrɪxart]
GenderMale
Origin
Word/nameFrankish
Meaning'strong in rule'
Other names
Nickname(s)Richy, Rich, Rick, Dick, Dicky, Dickie, Dicken, Reeks, Riccardo, Richie, Ritchie, Ricardo, Rico, Ricky, Rickie, Ritchy, 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 (the name was introduced into England by the Normans),[1] 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 Portuguese and Spanish "Ricardo" and the Italian "Riccardo" (see comprehensive variant list below).

People named Richard

[edit]

Multiple people with the same name

[edit]

Rulers and heads of state

[edit]

Aristocrats and non-ruling royals

[edit]

Religious figures

[edit]

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 B. Adkisson (1932–2011), chief justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court
  • 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) (1928–2023), American politician, US Senator from Iowa (1973–1979)
  • Richard Cotton (1923–2010), Western Australian politician, mayor of Fremantle from (1976–1978)
  • 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 Dallam (1865–1939), American politician, Secretary State of Maryland (1896–1899)
  • 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 Charles Kannangara (1920–1946), Sri Lankan Sinhala representative in the State Council of Ceylon for Morawaka
  • Richard W. Kunkel (born 1934), American politician, member of the North Dakota House of Representatives (1991–1998)
  • Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744–1817), Anglo-Irish politician, writer and inventor
  • Richard Lugar (1932–2019), American politician, US Senator from Indiana (1977–2011)
  • Richard Albert McKinley (1886–1951), Director of the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions
  • 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)
  • Richard Morefield (1929–2010), American diplomat
  • 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 Pelpola (1898–1971), Sri Lankan Sinhala politician, Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka
  • 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 Radl (1911-1977), American politician, member of the Iowa House of Representatives (1965-197)
  • Richard Raši (born 1971), Slovak politician
  • 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)
  • Richard Sulík (born 1968), Slovak politician
  • Richard Takáč (born 1982), Slovak politician
  • 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 C. Wilbur (1936–2020), judge of the United States Tax Court
  • Richard Wild (judge) (1912–1978), New Zealand jurist, Chief Justice of New Zealand (1966–1978)

In business

[edit]
  • Richard L. Bloch (1929–2018), 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), American real estate developer
  • Richard DeVos (1926–2018), American businessman and co-founder of Amway
  • Richard Jacobs (businessman) (1925–2009), American real estate businessman and owner of the Cleveland Indians baseball team
  • Richard W. Kent, American businessman and baseball team proprietor
  • 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]

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, American 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]
  • Richard, a fictional character from the television series Peg + Cat

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 (Rytshard, Ritshard, Rytshard, Ritshard)
  • Hebrew: ריצ'רד (Rîtsard')
  • Tamazight: ⵔⵉⴽⴰⵔⴷ (Rikard)
  • Amharic: ሪቻርድ (Rīcharidi)
  • Tigrinya: ሪቻርድ (Ričārede)

In Cushitic languages

[edit]

In Malayo-Polynesian languages

[edit]

In Turkic languages

[edit]

In Uralic languages

[edit]

In other languages

[edit]

Short forms

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

Nicknames

[edit]
  • English: Ricky, Rickie, Rikki, Richie, Rich, Dick, Dicky, Dickie, Ritchie, Richy, Rick, Ritchy, Rico

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c 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.