How common is the surname Richter?

29,880 people in the United States had the surname Richter in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 10,333 Americans. It ranked 1,178th of 162,253 surnames.

What ethnicity is the surname Richter?

In the 2010 Census, 95% of people named Richter identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.7% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

Who is the most famous person named Richter?

Burton Richter, American physicist, followed by Charles Francis Richter.

Where is the surname Richter most common?

Wikidata records people named Richter in the United States, Hungary and Austria and 3 other countries.

How do you pronounce Richter?

Richter is /ˈɹɪkt.ɚ/, 2 syllables.

Is the surname Richter getting more or less common?

More common. 29,233 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 29,880 in 2010, up 2.2%.

The surname Richter

A German surname, carried by 29,880 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈɹɪkt.ɚ/ 2 syllables Soundex R236

Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Richter is more common than 99.3% of them.

Origin

German origin

Borrowed from German Richter.

One of 1,101 German surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 29,880 people named Richter in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 10,333 Americans. That is up 2.2% since 2000, when the Census counted 29,233.

#1,178

rank among US surnames

29,880

people in 2010

per 100,000 Americans

+2.2%

change since 2000 (was #1,096)

Rank	Surname	People	1 in
#1,169	Sweet	30,051	10,274
#1,170	Talley	30,014	10,287
#1,171	Whitfield	29,962	10,305
#1,172	Crowe	29,953	10,308
#1,173	Goldstein	29,938	10,313
#1,174	England	29,926	10,317
#1,175	Pereira	29,898	10,327

Who is named Richter

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

95% of people named Richter identified as white (not Hispanic), 2.7% as Hispanic or Latino (any race) and 1.1% as two or more races.

White (not Hispanic) 95%
Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.7%
Two or more races 1.1%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.7%
Black (not Hispanic) 0.5%
American Indian and Alaska Native 0.2%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Richters

20 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

Burton Richter
American physicist, 1931–2018
Charles Francis Richter
American seismologist, 1900–1985
Andy Richter
American actor and comedian, born 1966
Max Richter
British composer (born 1966)
Hans Richter
Austrian-Hungarian orchestral and operatic conductor (1843-1916)
Elise Richter
Austrian philologist, scholar of Romance languages, and university teacher, Holocaust vict, 1865–1943
Franz Xaver Richter
Austro-Moravian singer, violinist, composer, conductor and music theoretician, 1709–1789
Jason James Richter
American actor, born 1980
Mike Richter
American ice hockey goaltender, born 1966
Conrad Richter
American novelist (1890–1968)
Wendi Richter
American professional wrestler, born 1961
Paul Richter
Austrian actor (1895–1961)

Notable Richters come mostly from the United States (13), Hungary (2) and Austria (2).

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Surnames that sound like Richter

Rister

Richter has the Soundex code R236, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code R236.

Other German surnames

All 1,101 German surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Richter come from?: Borrowed from German Richter.
How common is the surname Richter?: 29,880 people in the United States had the surname Richter in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 10,333 Americans. It ranked 1,178th of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Richter?: In the 2010 Census, 95% of people named Richter identified as white (not Hispanic), and 2.7% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).
Who is the most famous person named Richter?: Burton Richter, American physicist, followed by Charles Francis Richter.
Where is the surname Richter most common?: Wikidata records people named Richter in the United States, Hungary and Austria and 3 other countries.
How do you pronounce Richter?: Richter is /ˈɹɪkt.ɚ/, 2 syllables.
Is the surname Richter getting more or less common?: More common. 29,233 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 29,880 in 2010, up 2.2%.