Rayleigh
Rayleigh was given to 149 girls in 2025, #1,451 among girls’ names; 3,098 Americans have been recorded with it since 1995 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,080 Americans named Rayleigh and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 14.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rayleigh by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Rayleigh?
#1,451 among girls’ names, 2025
Rayleigh rose from #1,476 in 2015 to #1,451 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 87.4 to 92.7 per million.
201 babies in 2022, the peak
Rayleigh peaked in 2022, when 201 babies were given it (184 girls, #1,290 among girls’ names). The 165 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 82% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 149 | #1,451 | 0.09 |
| 2024 | 153 | #1,445 | 0.09 |
| 2023 | 166 | #1,360 | 0.10 |
| 2022 | 184 | #1,290 | 0.11 |
| 2021 | 131 | #1,607 | 0.08 |
| 2020 | 177 | #1,269 | 0.11 |
| 2019 | 187 | #1,250 | 0.11 |
| 2018 | 189 | #1,236 | 0.11 |
| 2017 | 187 | #1,265 | 0.11 |
| 2016 | 158 | #1,464 | 0.09 |
Every recorded year (31)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 156 | #1,476 | 0.09 |
| 2014 | 174 | #1,350 | 0.10 |
| 2013 | 129 | #1,657 | 0.07 |
| 2012 | 128 | #1,669 | 0.07 |
| 2011 | 134 | #1,618 | 0.08 |
| 2010 | 125 | #1,693 | 0.07 |
| 2009 | 81 | #2,390 | 0.04 |
| 2008 | 84 | #2,332 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 62 | #2,920 | 0.03 |
| 2006 | 55 | #3,079 | 0.03 |
| 2005 | 33 | #4,244 | 0.02 |
| 2004 | 38 | #3,797 | 0.02 |
| 2003 | 30 | #4,389 | 0.02 |
| 2002 | 17 | #6,625 | 0.01 |
| 2001 | 16 | #6,898 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 14 | #7,481 | 0.01 |
| 1999 | 12 | #8,100 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 10 | #9,112 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 8 | #10,560 | under 0.01 |
| 1996 | 6 | #13,066 | under 0.01 |
| 1995 | 7 | #11,462 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Rayleigh a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 3,098 Americans recorded as Rayleigh, 97% are girls and 3% boys. In 2025 it went to 149 girls and 16 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Rayleigh: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rayleigh, and how old are they?
3,080 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,098 Americans ever recorded as Rayleigh. The median Rayleigh alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 14.
The 2020 Census counted 1,774 people named Rayleigh (1,725 women and girls, 49 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,092 born in the U.S. The Census count is 15% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 13 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 839 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,220 |
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).
Where are babies named Rayleigh born?
The states with the most babies named Rayleigh are Texas, Kentucky and Georgia, with 40% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Kentucky is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 14 | #1,694 | 1.2× |
| Kentucky | 13 | #361 | 3.3× |
| Georgia | 11 | #902 | 1.4× |
| Tennessee | 10 | #742 | 1.8× |
| Alabama | 9 | #568 | 3.2× |
| Arkansas | 8 | #420 | 2.5× |
| Florida | 7 | #1,835 | 0.6× |
| Ohio | 6 | #1,405 | 0.6× |
| California | 6 | #3,027 | 0.1× |
| South Carolina | 6 | #753 | 0.7× |
Where Rayleigh is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Rayleigh is most over-represented in Kentucky: since 1995 it was given 3.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Rayleigh with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 3 names spelled alike, given to 5,722 babies since 1880, Rayleigh is the most given (54% of them). In 2025 it was given to 165 of their 247 babies (67%), again the most given.
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 Rayleigh
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 Rayleigh and names like it
- Compare Rayleigh and RaeleighBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sRayleigh peaked in 2022.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rayleigh since 1910.
- The top names of 2022The year the most babies were named Rayleigh.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Rayleigh alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.