A fun new tradition has appeared in New York: parties for people who share the same name. In the photo there’s a great example — a sheet of paper taped to a pole that reads: “Party for people named Chuck. Charles and Charlie are welcome too.”
And it all started with an epic story about the Ryans…
After COVID, a woman named Ryan Rose moved to New York and struggled to find “her people.” She had already tried building communities based on interests — a horror fan club, a paranormal research group — but nothing really took off. So she decided to try a different approach: organize a meetup for people who simply shared her name.
Exactly two people showed up to the first meeting: Ryan Cousins and Ryan Le. The three Ryans sat in a bar, joked about their name, and instantly became friends. As Rose later told The New York Times, there was some kind of cosmic connection between them.
Those three became the co-founders of what is now known as Ryan Meetup — a nonprofit organization run by Ryans, for Ryans, in the name of Ryans.
Interestingly, in the United States the name Ryan used to be extremely common: throughout the 1980s and 1990s it consistently ranked among the most popular boys’ names in the country.
After that small first gathering, the trio decided to think bigger. They printed hundreds of flyers and put them up not only around Brooklyn and Manhattan but also in other cities across the U.S. In a single night, the Instagram account @ryanmeetup grew from 200 to 800 followers. People from all over the country began writing: “My name is Ryan — how do I join?”
The second meetup took place at Ryan Maguire’s bar in Manhattan. The choice wasn’t random — it simply had the word “Ryan” in its name. The bar’s owners were thrilled. Their son, Ryan Maguire himself, even attended the gathering. This time more than a hundred people showed up — along with journalists close behind.
Inside, visitors were given identical name badges and encouraged to meet one another.
The phrase “Hi Ryan, I’m Ryan” could be heard all over the pub. The door policy was strict: entry was allowed only with ID, and the name had to be checked. Alternative spellings (Rian, Ryann, Rion) were accepted if they were pronounced “Ryan.” But having the last name Ryan didn’t count.
There was also one controversial rule: no Bryans allowed. This is not a joke. The organization’s website literally says that Bryans are simply “Category B Ryans.”
The rivalry between Ryans and Bryans has become one of the community’s central memes. One participant, Ryan Chen, told WNYC that Bryans are the Ryans’ “natural enemies” and even proposed a conspiracy theory: that Bryans are the reason people constantly misspell the name “Ryan.”
Today the community includes more than 20,000 Ryans from over 60 countries. The organization has an official website, merchandise, chapters across the United States, and an Instagram account with more than 100,000 followers.
Ryan Meetup also has an ambitious dream: to break the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people with the same name. The current record belongs to 2,325 people named Ivan, who gathered in 2017 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
