Ritu

Girls' name

Season, period

Ritu has been given to 341 babies in the U.S. since 1968. 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 2001, with 16 recorded.

Babies named Ritu, 2014

1 in 412,000

Ritu over time, 1880–2025

Girls

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Ritu: meaning, origin, and history

Season, period

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Ritu means

Ritu means “season, period”.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Ritu is used in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Punjabi.

Origin, language, and formation

Ritu is used in English and Finnish.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Ritva and Riitta.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Ritu is pronounced /ˈritu/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 341 girls were recorded with the name Ritu between 1968 and 2014. Its highest annual count was 16 in 2001; its best national rank was #4,945 in 1974.

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 Ritu?

Ritu had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2014, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2014: 1 in 412,000; 9 of 3,706,812 births
Among girls only: 1 in 198,000; <0.01% of girls
Rank, 2014: Unranked; Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size: 285,486 kids; Even odds of a second one

Where Ritu sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Olivia (13,544)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2014 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 285,486 children born in 2014 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Ritu. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Ritus were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Ritu was born before 1992 — so the typical Ritu is around 33 today.

Median birth year: 1992; About 33 years old
Biggest decade: 2000s; 30.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years: 53.4%; A modern name
Recorded since 1950: 341; People you could plausibly meet

Choose a decade

2000s — 30.8% of all recorded uses (105).

Is Ritu 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 2001 (16)
Years since peak: 24; Years
Year-to-year steadiness: Volatile; 30.9% average annual change
Best rank ever: #4,945; 1974

Spellings of Ritu

Ritu is not the most common spelling — Ruth is, with 69.7% against Ritu's 0.03%.

Ruth69.7%836,122
Rita23.7%284,452
Nita1.2%14,268
Reta0.72%8,616
Riya0.52%6,273
Rina0.40%4,809
Vita0.38%4,591
Lita0.37%4,437

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.

Ritu around the world

Where Ritu 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
2000–2000
#3,912
in 2000
Canada
1999–1999
#2,493
in 1999
South Australia
2013–2013
#818
in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Ritu by the numbers

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

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025: Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago: —
Best rank ever: #4,945; 1974
Peak year: 2001; 16 that year
First recorded: 1968
Last recorded: 2014
All-time count: 341
Count in 2025: Under 5

Names similar to Ritu

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

Rital Ritika Riti Ritaj Ritta Ritha Ritisha Rithika Rithanya Ritvi Rittie Ritchie Ritamae Rittany Ritaann Rithvi Ritamarie Ritzy Rithi Rithu Ritanya Rittal Rithvika Rittney

Sibling names for Ritu

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

For a sister

Magaly Nyah Sheridan Lesli Nya Shyann Alysa Danae

For a brother

Destin Cristobal Dallin Donavon Coby Kevon Zakary Keyon

Explore around Ritu

Top names of 2001, Ritu's peak year The 2000s in full Other names that peaked in 1974 Girls' names starting with R Punjabi Girl Names Punjabi Names Short Finnish Girl Names