Rien
given name · Latin script
Meaning: nothing
Used for both men and women, depending on the country· national registers that list names by sex disagree
- Netherlands (Meertens NVB): listed as male
- United States (Census Bureau, 2020): listed under both sexes
(measured from records)Officially recorded in 12 countries · latest register: Census Bureau, 2020
/rin/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Rien is a given name used for both men and women, depending on the country, written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the Netherlands than in any other country.
- NLNetherlands1 in 28K(measured from records)
- FRFrance≈1 in 238K
- BEBelgium≈1 in 47K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- Netherlands (measured from records)
- Record sources
- 108 (measured from records)
- 1 in 28K (inferred from the name graph)
622 people
corpus datasets behind its best-documented spelling
strongest: highest-authority source
Netherlands
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin
(measured from records)nothing
Cited for this meaning 1
- kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Attested across 23 languages in the etymology graph.
Where in the world
(measured from records)Rien counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NL Netherlands | #581 | 622 | 1 in 28K | 605 | Rien | 84 |
| DZ Algeria | — | ≈440 est. | ≈1 in 97K | — | Rien | 3 |
| FR France | — | ≈290 est. | ≈1 in 238K | 4 | Rien | 103 |
| BE Belgium | — | ≈250 est. | ≈1 in 47K | 5 | Rien | 43 |
| US United States | — | 246 | 1 in 1.4M | 175 | Rien | 108 |
| MY Malaysia | — | ≈140 est. | ≈1 in 233K | — | Rien | 11 |
622 people counted by Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018). Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Meertens NVB — Nederlandse Voornamenbank (all-time BRP bearer counts, 2018); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020; Statbel — Prénoms nouveau-nés (newborns). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses
(measured from records)Rien is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In dum, to sew together, to put a thread through
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In frm, thing (miscellaneous item)
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In mkj, construct state of riah
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In fro, thing; object
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In tmq, water
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name
(measured from records)- Rien van Nunenb. 1912NLDutch actor (1912-1975)
- Rien Verburgb. 1920NLDutch economist and politician (1920-2009)
- Rien Beringerb. 1927NLDutch painter (1927-2005)
- Rien Goenéb. 1929NLDutch sculptor and painter
- Rien Poortvlietb. 1932NLDutch painter, best known for his drawings of animals and "Gnomes" (1932-1995)
- Rien Vroegindeweijb. 1944NLDutch poet, playwright and translator
- Rien Broereb. 1953NLDutch writer
- Rien van de Weijgaertb. 1963NLPh.D. Universiteit Leiden 1991
- Rien Longb. 1981USAll-American college football player, professional football player, defensive lineman
- Rien Schuurhuisb. 1982NLDutch-Australian cyclist
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them
(machine-generated)A formal English salutation is built on the surname, so it needs a full name — on its own, a first name only supports the informal form.
Evidence
(measured from records)24 registers and reference works attest this spelling, across 12 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 175 | #108,023 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 175 | #96,480 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 165 | #107,669 |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1971 | 16 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1981 | 13 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1951 | 10 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1931 | 9 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1961 | 8 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1941 | 8 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1901 | 7 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1991 | 4 | — |
| FR France | INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000) | 1921 | 3 | — |
Reference works 4
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- Rymut, Słownik nazwisk współcześnie w Polsce używanych (10 vols, IJP PAN, Kraków 1992–1994) — every Polish surname in the PESEL register at the end of 1990, with bearer counts nationally and per voivodeship1990
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the name Rien mean, and where does it come from?
- nothing Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
- What are other forms of the name Rien?
- In the etymology graph, Rini, Marinko and Regin are forms of the same name in other languages; it is recorded as a short form of Marinus and Marijn.
- How do you pronounce Rien?
- A machine transcription gives /rin/ (IPA) for Dutch.
- Is Rien a male or female name?
- Rien is used for both men and women, depending on the country. National registers that list names by sex disagree: Netherlands (Meertens NVB): listed as male; United States (Census Bureau, 2020): listed under both sexes. We don't publish a percentage split.
- In which country does Rien have the most bearers?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted about 622 people named Rien, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled rien.
- Where is Rien most common?
- Rien is densest in the Netherlands, where the national register counts about 1 in 28 thousand people carrying it.
- How common is the name Rien?
- In the Netherlands, the national register counted 622 people named Rien, about 1 in 28 thousand residents.
- How common is Rien compared with other names?
- In the Netherlands, Rien is the 581st most common given name of 101,916 given names recorded there.
What do you want to know about Rien?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/rienThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Rien” — the 581st most common given name in Netherlands. Data snapshot 2026-10-13.