Meaning and background
The story behind Richard
Richard has a documented Germanic brave-ruler formation. Behind the Name identifies the older elements for a ruler or king and for firmness, bravery, or hardiness, and describes Norman transmission into England. Its many royal and cultural bearers are later layers of association. A dog named Richard can honour a particular person while retaining the historical name elements without treating the ruler image as a literal title for the animal.
- Origin
- Germanic name combining ruler/king and hard/firm/brave elements, conventionally brave ruler. Source
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About Richard
Recorded as a dog’s name
Richard appears in 5 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/ɹɪtʃɚd/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/ɹɪtʃɚd/ · primary stress on syllable 1R IH1 CH ER0 D
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.