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Richard

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Richard is a masculine 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'. Nicknames include "Richie", "Dick", "Dickon", "Dickie", "Rich", "Rick", "Rico", "Ricky", and more.

Richard is a common English (the name was introduced into England by the Normans), German and French male name. It is 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".

01People named Richard

Multiple people with the same name

Rulers and heads of state

Aristocrats and non-ruling royals

Religious figures

In politics and government

In business

  • 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

Composers

Singers and musicians

Actors

In film and television

Explorers

  • 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

In sports

Soldiers, pilots, other military/security

Writers and journalists

Crime

Other

Fictional characters

02Cognates/transliterations

In Indo-European languages

Baltic

Celtic

Germanic

Romance

Slavic

Other Indo-European

In Semitic languages

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

In Cushitic languages

In Malayo-Polynesian languages

In Turkic languages

In Uralic languages

In other languages

03Short forms

  • Cornish: Hicca
  • Czech: Ríša, Rik (Riker)
  • Dutch: Ries
  • English: Rick, Rich, Richie, Ritchie, Dick, Dicky, Dickie, Ric, Rik, Ricky, Rickie, Dickon, Richy, Ritchy
  • 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
  • Romanian: Richi
  • Slovak: Rišo, Riško, Riči
  • Spanish: Cayo (Guatemala)
  • Swiss/German: Richi

04Nicknames

  • English: Ricky, Rickie, Rikki, Richie, Rich, Dick, Dicky, Dickie, Ritchie, Richy, Rick, Ritchy, Rico
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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Richard, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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