Cray
Cray was last recorded in 2011, when 8 babies were given it; 111 Americans have been recorded with it between 1962 and 2011 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Cray by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Cray?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #8,913, in 2011; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
9 babies in 1993, the peak
Cray peaked in 1993, when 9 boys were given it, #5,848 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 8 | #8,913 | 4.2 |
| 2010 | 5 | #12,613 | 2.6 |
| 2006 | 6 | #10,928 | 2.9 |
| 2005 | 6 | #10,345 | 3.0 |
| 2003 | 6 | #9,801 | 3.0 |
| 2002 | 5 | #10,983 | 2.6 |
| 2001 | 7 | #8,472 | 3.6 |
| 2000 | 5 | #10,672 | 2.5 |
| 1998 | 6 | #8,675 | 3.1 |
| 1996 | 7 | #7,278 | 3.7 |
Every recorded year (18)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 8 | #6,493 | 4.2 |
| 1994 | 5 | #9,055 | 2.6 |
| 1993 | 9 | #5,848 | 4.6 |
| 1992 | 6 | #7,596 | 3.0 |
| 1990 | 5 | #8,355 | 2.4 |
| 1989 | 5 | #8,117 | 2.5 |
| 1988 | 6 | #6,574 | 3.1 |
| 1962 | 6 | #3,702 | 2.9 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Cray a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Cray has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 18 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Cray: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Cray, and how old are they?
An estimated 107 Americans named Cray and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (96% of everyone recorded); the median is 30 years old and half are between 23 and 33. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 261 people named Cray (21 women and girls, 240 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 108 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.4 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Cray rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 59,559 babies since 1880, Cray is the third most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 43 babies recorded by SSA was a Cray (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Cray
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Cray and names like it
- Compare Cray and CaryBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sCray peaked in 1993.
- The top names of 1993The year the most babies were named Cray.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Cray alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.