Richie is a pet form of Richard, from the Germanic ric, "power", and hard, "brave", usually rendered as "brave ruler" or "strong ruler". Richie Cunningham, the clean-cut hero of Happy Days played by Ron Howard, gave the nickname an all-American glow. Richie ranked number 1602 in 2000, peaked at number 1585 in 2001 and has moved between about 1800 and 2600 since 2015, standing at number 1861 in 2025.