Rickey is a spelling of Ricky, the pet form of Richard, which comes from the Germanic ric and hard and means "brave ruler" or "powerful leader". It was a popular independent name in the 1950s and 1960s and belongs to baseball Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, the all-time stolen base leader. Rickey ranked 892 among US boys in 2000, left the top 1000 soon afterwards and stands at number 2827 in 2025.