Diminutive of Richard, from Germanic elements meaning brave ruler.
Rickie traces its roots through Richard, one of the great Germanic compound names imported to England by the Normans: ric (ruler, power) combined with hard (brave, strong), producing a name that translates roughly as "powerful ruler" or "strong in rule." It was one of the most dominant masculine names of medieval Europe — three kings of England bore it, including Richard I (the Lionheart), whose crusading legend made the name synonymous with martial glory for centuries. By the high medieval period, Richard was so prevalent that its nickname Hick became a generic term for an ordinary man, surviving in modern English as "hick."
Rick and Ricky emerged as the dominant diminutive forms in twentieth-century American usage, riding the great nickname wave that turned Richards into Ricks across postwar suburban America. Rickie — with its distinctive -ie ending — took on a slightly softer quality than the blunter Ricky, and was used for both boys and girls. The jazz pianist and singer Rickie Lee Jones brought the spelling to particular visibility in the late 1970s and 1980s, and her idiosyncratic, bohemian persona gave the -ie spelling a certain artistic credibility.
As a given name in its own right, Rickie is rare enough to feel genuinely individual while legible enough to never require explanation. It occupies the charming middle space between formal and casual that many parents now seek: not stuffy enough to demand a nickname, not so casual as to seem slight. The name wears its Germanic warrior ancestry lightly, distilled through centuries of ordinary life into something warm and accessible.