Ryan is a given name in English. It is primarily a male name. It comes either from the surname Ryan, which comes from the Irish Ó Riain, or from the Irish given name Rían (which may mean "little king").
Ireland
For Ireland, information is available for 2005 and 2006, which shows a popularity rank of 10th and 14th, respectively, for use of "Ryan" as a male given name for newborn children.
United Kingdom
In Scotland of the 1990s, "Ryan" was the most popular forename for newborn boys in every year from 1994 to 1998; this popularity is recent, as "Ryan" apparently was not in use in 1900, ranked between 100 and 250 in 1950, and appears at rank 64 in 1975. In Northern Ireland, "Ryan" appeared among the top five most commonly selected male names for newborns in 2000–2003, but did not appear among the top ten in 1975. In England and Wales, data for 2003–2007 is available, which suggest somewhat less popularity of "Ryan" than in other parts of the UK, having a rank of 21 in 2003 and 2004 then dropping to 25 in 2005–2007.
United States
"Ryan" as a male given name has persisted in popularity for the thirty-year period of 1976–2006 in the 10th to 20th rank; the name appeared in the top thousand for the first time in 1946 and gained steadily in popularity until leveling off in the 1970s. Its ascendency in the U.S. has been traced, in part, to its use by American actor Charles Patrick Ryan O'Neal who used the stage name Ryan O'Neal in the popular series Peyton Place from 1964 to 1969.
The popularity of "Ryan" as a female given name is an order of magnitude less than that as a male name; the name first appeared in the top thousand in 1974 and has remained there since, fluctuating widely from year to year but never breaching the rank of 300.
Ryan Adams
Ryan Babel, Dutch footballer
Ryan Bastinac, Australian rules footballer
Ryan Benjamin (disambiguation), multiple people
Ryan Bethea, American football player
Ryan Braun, American All Star major league baseball player
Ryan Broekhoff, Australian basketballer
Ryan Brooks, American basketballer
Ryan Cabrera, American pop rock singer and musician
Ryan Cartwright, American actor
Ryan Conbeer, Welsh rugby union player
Ryan Coughlin, Canadian football player
Ryan Dalziel
Ryan Donaldson, English footballer
Ryan Drummond, American voice actor, actor, singer and comedian
Ryan Dunn, actor in TV show Jackass and stuntman
Ryan Eigenmann
Ryan Esson, Scottish goalkeeper
Ryan Fulton, Scottish football player
Ryan Getzlaf, Canadian ice hockey player
Ryan Giggs, Manchester United footballer and former Wales international
Ryan Gosling, Canadian actor
Ryan Hale, American football player
Ryan Hall (disambiguation), multiple people
Ryan Harris (disambiguation)
Ryan Harrison (disambiguation), multiple people
Ryan Harwood, Australian rules footballer
Ryan Higa, YouTuber
Ryan Howard, American All Star major league baseball player
Ryan Jimmo, Canadian mixed martial arts fighter
Ryan Johnson (disambiguation), multiple people
Ryan Jones (disambiguation), multiple people
Ryan Kalish, American major league baseball player
Ryan Kent, English football player
Ryan Kesler, American ice hockey player
Ryan Lavarnway, American baseball player
Ryan Leaf, American football player
Ryan Lee (disambiguation), multiple people
Ryan Lester, Australian rules footballer
Ryan Lewis, American musician
Ryan Lochte, American swimmer
Ryan Malone, American ice hockey player
Ryan Martinez, American mixed martial artist
Ryan Morgan, Australian Rugby League player
Ryan Nelsen, New Zealand footballer
Ryan Newman, American actress
Ryan Newman, American NASCAR driver
Ryan Ochoa, American actor
Ryan O'Malley, American baseball player
Ryan O'Malley (American football), American football player
Ryan O'Neal, American television and film actor
Ryan Phillippe, American actor
Ryan Pickett (filmmaker), American film director
Ryan Powell (disambiguation), multiple people
Ryan Reynolds, Canadian actor
Ryan Max Riley, American World Cup skier and humorist
Ryan Roberts, American major league baseball player
Ryan Ross, American musician
Ryan Rowland-Smith, Australian baseball player
Ryan Seacrest, American talk-show host
Ryan Searle, Australian baseball player
Ryan Sheckler, American professional skateboarder
Ryan Sherriff, American baseball player
Ryan Simpkins (rugby league), Australian Rugby League player
Ryan Sitton, Texas politician
Ryan Smyth, former Canadian NHL ice hockey player
Ryan Star, American singer-songwriter
Ryan Stiles, American comedian
Ryan Tafazolli, English-Iranian football player
Ryan Taylor (disambiguation), multiple people
Ryan Tedder, American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer
Ryan ten Doeschate, Dutch cricketer
Ryan Thomas, English actor
Ryan Tubridy, Irish broadcaster
Ryan Van Dyke, American football player
Ryan Walter, Canadian former professional ice hockey player
Ryan Waters, American mountaineer, guide, polar adventurer and speaker
Ryan Wheeler, American baseball player
Ryan White, AIDS activist
Ryan Williams (disambiguation), multiple people
Ryan Atwood, a troubled teenager on the FOX television series The O.C.
Ryan Hardy, former FBI agent on Fox's The Following
Ryan Howard (The Office), the temp from NBC's The Office
Ryan Laserbeam, from Nickelodeon's True Jackson VP
Ryan Lavery, a father on the American daytime drama All My Children'
Ryan O'Reily, inmate on HBO prison drama Oz
Ryan Steele, from VR Troopers
Ryan Wolfe, from CSI: Miami
Typhoon Ryan (1992), a category 4 typhoon from August 30 to September 11
Rayen Castle, an adobe castle in Kerman Province, Iran
