Ribeiro

surname · Latin script

Meaning: a brook, creek or stream (small body of running water)

Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published

/ʁibejɾu/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated

Ribeiro is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in Brazil than in any other country, where it is the 19th most common surname.

rarermore common
  • PTPortugal≈1 in 113(inferred from the name graph)
  • BRBrazil≈1 in 242
  • CHSwitzerland1 in 1.5K

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.

Brazil (inferred from the name graph)

≈880,000 people, est.

#347 (measured from records)

of 19M surnames

Sources
362 (measured from records)

Highest-authority source

≈1 in 113 (inferred from the name graph)

Portugal, est.

measured from records inferred from the name graph

Name dossier (print, CSV)

Meaning & origin(measured from records)

a brook, creek or stream (small body of running water)

Sources 1

  • kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

Attested across 2 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world(measured from records)

Ribeiro 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.

Where Ribeiro is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
BR Brazil#19≈880,000 est.≈1 in 242531Ribeiro266
PT Portugal#17≈91,000 est.≈1 in 113—Ribeiro223
MZ Mozambique—≈25,000 est.≈1 in 1.2K1—41
FR France—≈22,000 est.≈1 in 3.1K2.6KRibeiro5
AO Angola#32≈20,000 est.≈1 in 1.6K1Ribeiro47
UY Uruguay—7,8351 in 4327.8K—1
CH Switzerland#995,6731 in 1.5K5.7KRibeiro85

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: IBGE — Nomes (census name API); INE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public); BFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames); INSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000); Wikidata humans by citizenship — given & family names; Wikidata humans by citizenship — given & family names. 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 names spelled this way(inferred from the name graph)

Ribeiro is also recorded as 3 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • French surname2 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France, Belgium, Portugal, United States

  • English surname5 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, United Kingdom, Brazil, Australia

    Languages: English, Dutch

    Also written Rïbëïrö, Rîbëîrö

  • Russian surname16 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Russia, United States, Ukraine, Spain

    Languages: Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian

    Also written Рибейро, Рібейро, Рибейру, Рібеіро, Рибеиро

78 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses(measured from records)

Ribeiro is also recorded in 2 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

  • que vem do rio; Portugal, Venice, Livorno, Jamaica, Amsterdam, Curaçao, London

    as a nameDicionario Sefaradi De SobrenomesDictionary Of Sephardic Surnames Inclusive Cristaos-Novos, Conversos, Marranos, Italianos,…

  • In Spanish, a wine from Galicia

    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)

19401960198020002020Olívio Ribeiro, b. 1942Luís Castro, b. 1961Lio, b. 1962Fernanda Ribeiro, b. 1969Mário Jardel, b. 1973Juninho Pernambucano, b. 1975Adriano, b. 1982Edimilson Fernandes, b. 1996Alexsandro, b. 1999Manuel Ugarte Ribeiro, b. 2001
  • Olívio Ribeirob. 1942BRBrazilian footballer
  • Luís Castrob. 1961PTnot in their usual namePortuguese footballer and manager
  • Liob. 1962PTnot in their usual nameBelgian actress and singer
  • Fernanda Ribeirob. 1969PTAthletics competitor, long distance runner
  • Mário Jardelb. 1973BRnot in their usual nameBrazilian footballer (born 1973)
  • Juninho Pernambucanob. 1975ESnot in their usual nameBrazilian footballer
  • Adrianob. 1982BRnot in their usual nameBrazilian footballer (born 1982)
  • Edimilson Fernandesb. 1996CHnot in their usual nameSwiss association football player
  • Alexsandrob. 1999BRnot in their usual nameBrazilian footballer
  • Manuel Ugarte Ribeirob. 2001UYUruguayan association football player

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)

FormalPrezado(a) Ribeiro,Dear Ribeiro, (English)
InformalPrezado(a) Ribeiro,Hello, (English)

Evidence(measured from records)

Attested in 43 sources across 27 countries.

Official registers attesting Ribeiro
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
BR BrazilIBGE — Censo 2022 Nomes no Brasil per-token lookup (v3 API, given+surname)—3.1M#15
UY UruguayINE Uruguay — Apellidos más frecuentes 1902–2024 (Tableau Public)—7.8K—
CH SwitzerlandBFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames)20245.7K#90
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19713.7K—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19912.6K—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19812.5K—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19611.1K—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1951209—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1931150—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)1941146—
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)192186—
AO AngolaWikidata humans by citizenship — given & family names—1#317

Reference works 5

  • The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)

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 Ribeiro mean, and where does it come from?
a brook, creek or stream (small body of running water) Recorded by kaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations).
How do you pronounce Ribeiro?
A machine transcription gives /ʁibejɾu/ (IPA) for Portuguese.
In which country does Ribeiro have the most bearers?
Mondonomo estimates about 876 thousand people named Ribeiro in Brazil, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled ribeiro.
How common is the name Ribeiro?
In Uruguay, the national register counted 7,835 people named Ribeiro, about 1 in 432 residents.
How common is Ribeiro compared with other names?
In Brazil, Ribeiro is the 19th most common surname of 424,864 surnames recorded there.

What do you want to know about Ribeiro?

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Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/ribeiro

The 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, “Ribeiro” — the 19th most common surname in Brazil. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.

See how Ribeiro parses inside a full name →