Five Weeks Later, We Finally Know the Name of Rihanna’s Second Child

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky during her second pregnancy

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 9 September 2023

After welcoming their second son on August 1, over a month later we finally know his name—and, like older brother RZA Athelston before him, the five-week-old’s name begins with an R and is unique: Riot Rose Mayers, born at Cedar Sinai Hospital at 7:41 a.m.

His birth certificate was obtained by People and marks the family of four’s fourth name that begins with the letter R: In addition to Rihanna and RZA, Riot also joins dad A$AP Rocky, whose legal name is Rakim Athelaston Mayers. We got a hint into the couple’s second child’s name on July 20 (although we didn’t know it at the time) when Rocky released his latest single, “RIOT (Rowdy Pipe’n),” the second single from his upcoming album Don’t Be Dumb.

And we may know his name, but it may be a minute before we actually see the little guy. “Rihanna and A$AP will spend the early days of parenthood out of the public eye and won’t make any immediate plans to debut the new baby,” a source told Entertainment Tonight. A different source told the outlet “Rihanna and A$AP are great right now. They’re so excited to grow their family and are so united when it comes to parenting. They have so much fun together and are very in love. They already shared a special connection and parenting together has made their bond even stronger.” The outlet said the couple “are each other’s rock,” and Rihanna herself said of their bond, per Access, “It’s amazing to have a friendship, like, be the center of our entire family, and I really love it.”

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RZA, born on May 13, 2022, was named after the Wu-Tang cofounder of the same name. Apparently, Riot’s middle name in particular has special meaning, too: a source told Entertainment Tonight “Not everyone knows this, but Rocky loves flowers—he loves having fresh flowers in the house, he loves decorating with flowers, and he even had real flowers in his grill once.” And roses, the outlet reports, are Rihanna’s favorite flowers. The mogul may have hinted at her second son’s middle name back in May at the Met Gala, where Rihanna wore a white Valentino gown covered in large roses. In the music video for his song “RIOT,” Rocky wore the red plaid skirt he wore to the Met alongside Rihanna, tying together for the first time “Riot” and “Rose.”

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Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.