Rainer
Rainer was given to 34 boys in 2025, #3,428 among boys’ names; 1,276 Americans have been recorded with it since 1955 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,210 Americans named Rainer and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (95% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 7 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rainer by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Rainer mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Rainer is “an English and American surname transferred from the given name.” Its etymology gives the senses “counsel by the gods” (*raginą) and “army” (*harjaz).
Variant of Rayner, a patronymic surname from a medieval given name from Proto-Germanic *raginą (“counsel by the gods”) + *harjaz (“army”). Also borrowed from modern German.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Rainer?
#3,428 among boys’ names, 2025
Rainer fell from #3,210 in 2015 to #3,428 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 18.8 to 19.9 per million.
53 babies in 2018, the peak
Rainer peaked in 2018, when 53 boys were given it, #2,463 among boys’ names. The 34 births of 2025 are 64% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 34 | #3,428 | 19.9 |
| 2024 | 51 | #2,624 | 29.6 |
| 2023 | 45 | #2,837 | 26.3 |
| 2022 | 44 | #2,904 | 25.2 |
| 2021 | 53 | #2,517 | 30.3 |
| 2020 | 43 | #2,828 | 24.9 |
| 2019 | 35 | #3,323 | 19.5 |
| 2018 | 53 | #2,463 | 29.2 |
| 2017 | 48 | #2,622 | 25.9 |
| 2016 | 43 | #2,822 | 22.7 |
Every recorded year (68)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 36 | #3,210 | 18.8 |
| 2014 | 35 | #3,199 | 18.2 |
| 2013 | 27 | #3,830 | 14.3 |
| 2012 | 23 | #4,351 | 12.1 |
| 2011 | 19 | #4,940 | 10.0 |
| 2010 | 15 | #5,965 | 7.8 |
| 2009 | 24 | #4,245 | 12.1 |
| 2008 | 29 | #3,711 | 14.2 |
| 2007 | 22 | #4,465 | 10.6 |
| 2006 | 27 | #3,750 | 13.1 |
| 2005 | 25 | #3,789 | 12.5 |
| 2004 | 18 | #4,736 | 9.1 |
| 2003 | 10 | #7,111 | 5.1 |
| 2002 | 17 | #4,653 | 8.8 |
| 2001 | 18 | #4,417 | 9.3 |
| 2000 | 10 | #6,703 | 5.1 |
| 1999 | 8 | #7,696 | 4.2 |
| 1998 | 11 | #5,739 | 5.8 |
| 1997 | 14 | #4,617 | 7.4 |
| 1996 | 15 | #4,337 | 7.9 |
| 1995 | 17 | #3,806 | 8.9 |
| 1994 | 15 | #4,239 | 7.8 |
| 1993 | 16 | #3,966 | 8.2 |
| 1992 | 11 | #5,159 | 5.5 |
| 1991 | 10 | #5,406 | 4.9 |
| 1990 | 12 | #4,605 | 5.8 |
| 1989 | 6 | #7,675 | 3.0 |
| 1988 | 13 | #3,847 | 6.8 |
| 1987 | 6 | #6,746 | 3.2 |
| 1986 | 17 | #2,976 | 9.2 |
| 1985 | 20 | #2,570 | 10.8 |
| 1984 | 11 | #3,871 | 6.1 |
| 1983 | 7 | #5,340 | 3.9 |
| 1982 | 6 | #6,210 | 3.3 |
| 1980 | 5 | #7,038 | 2.8 |
| 1978 | 5 | #6,533 | 3.0 |
| 1977 | 11 | #3,545 | 6.7 |
| 1976 | 8 | #4,310 | 5.1 |
| 1975 | 7 | #4,666 | 4.5 |
| 1974 | 6 | #5,091 | 3.8 |
| 1972 | 5 | #5,552 | 3.1 |
| 1971 | 6 | #4,781 | 3.4 |
| 1970 | 6 | #4,601 | 3.2 |
| 1969 | 9 | #3,257 | 5.0 |
| 1968 | 13 | #2,417 | 7.5 |
| 1967 | 8 | #3,180 | 4.6 |
| 1966 | 18 | #1,869 | 10.1 |
| 1965 | 13 | #2,346 | 7.0 |
| 1964 | 21 | #1,782 | 10.5 |
| 1963 | 15 | #2,182 | 7.4 |
| 1962 | 15 | #2,168 | 7.3 |
| 1961 | 10 | #2,851 | 4.7 |
| 1960 | 13 | #2,402 | 6.1 |
| 1959 | 11 | #2,630 | 5.2 |
| 1958 | 14 | #2,241 | 6.6 |
| 1957 | 9 | #2,977 | 4.2 |
| 1956 | 6 | #3,846 | 2.8 |
| 1955 | 7 | #3,432 | 3.4 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Rainer a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,276 Americans recorded as Rainer, 1% are girls and 99% boys. In 2025 it went to 34 boys; SSA lists no girls with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Rainer: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rainer, and how old are they?
1,210 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 95% of the 1,276 Americans ever recorded as Rainer. The median Rainer alive today is 16 years old; half are between 7 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 2,175 people named Rainer (87 women and girls, 2,088 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 968 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2.2 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 91 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 104 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 173 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 296 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 549 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
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 5 names spelled alike, given to 3,318 babies since 1880, Rainer is the most given (38% of them). In 2025 it was given to 34 of their 101 babies (34%), the second most given that year.
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 Rainer
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 Rainer and names like it
- Compare Rainer and RainierBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sRainer peaked in 2018.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rainer since 1910.
- The top names of 2018The year the most babies were named Rainer.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Rainer alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.