Name Awesome

Radu

Boys' name

Glad, dear

Radu has been given to 30 babies in the U.S. since 1976. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1976, with 5 recorded.

Babies named Radu, 2022

1 in 677,000

Radu over time, 1880–2025

Boys
024618801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Radu: meaning, origin, and history

Glad, dear

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Radu means

Radu means “glad, dear”, associated with radъ.

Origin, language, and formation

Radu is used in Romanian.

Radu comes through Old Church Slavonic радъ and Proto-Slavic *radъ.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Romanian, Radu is pronounced [ˈra.du].

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 30 boys were recorded with the name Radu between 1976 and 2022. Its highest annual count was 5 in 1976; its best national rank was #6,262 in 1976.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Radu?

Radu had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2022, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2022
1 in 677,000
5 of 3,385,755 births
Among boys only
1 in 349,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2022
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
469,366 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Radu sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2022 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 469,366 children born in 2022 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Radu. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Radus were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Radu was born before 2003 — so the typical Radu is around 22 today.

Median birth year
2003
About 22 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
50.0% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
66.7%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
30
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 50.0% of all recorded uses (15).

Is Radu rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1976 (5)
Years since peak
49
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Not enough data
Too few years
Best rank ever
#6,262
1976

Spellings of Radu

Radu is not the most common spelling — Randy is, with 29.7% against Radu's <0.01%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Radu around the world

Where Radu ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    2006–2025
    #2,664
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    2008–2020
    #741
    in 2020
  • France
    2009–2025
    #4,647
    in 2025
  • Canada
    1994–2017
    #2,944
    in 2017

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Radu by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#6,262
1976
Peak year
1976
5 that year
First recorded
1976
Last recorded
2022
All-time count
30
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Radu

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

RaddRadeRadnorRadinRaderRadiRadynRadleeRadekRadRaddixRadeenRadvinRadwanMamaduRadieRadlyRadixRadenRadeeRadricAhaduRadellRadame

Sibling names for Radu

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Radu

Top names of 1976, Radu's peak yearThe 1970s in fullOther names that peaked in 1976Boys' names starting with RRomanian Boy Names