Read
Read was last recorded in 2014, when 5 babies were given it; 308 Americans have been recorded with it between 1914 and 2014 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Read by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Read mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Read is “a male given name transferred from the surname.”
English and Scottish surname, variant of Reed.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Read?
Unranked in 2025
Its last boys’ rank on record is #13,601, in 2014; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
14 babies in 1949, the peak
Read peaked in 1949, when 14 boys were given it, #2,097 among boys’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 5 | #13,601 | 2.6 |
| 2012 | 5 | #13,766 | 2.6 |
| 2007 | 6 | #12,036 | 2.9 |
| 2006 | 6 | #11,725 | 2.9 |
| 2003 | 6 | #10,564 | 3.0 |
| 2002 | 5 | #12,091 | 2.6 |
| 2001 | 8 | #8,140 | 4.1 |
| 1999 | 7 | #8,512 | 3.6 |
| 1998 | 10 | #6,188 | 5.2 |
| 1997 | 8 | #7,122 | 4.2 |
Every recorded year (48)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | 6 | #8,764 | 3.2 |
| 1994 | 5 | #9,928 | 2.6 |
| 1992 | 7 | #7,220 | 3.5 |
| 1991 | 5 | #9,290 | 2.5 |
| 1990 | 5 | #9,186 | 2.4 |
| 1989 | 7 | #6,766 | 3.5 |
| 1987 | 5 | #7,861 | 2.7 |
| 1986 | 5 | #7,570 | 2.7 |
| 1984 | 7 | #5,448 | 3.9 |
| 1983 | 5 | #7,064 | 2.8 |
| 1979 | 7 | #5,241 | 4.1 |
| 1975 | 7 | #4,673 | 4.5 |
| 1973 | 5 | #5,708 | 3.2 |
| 1969 | 5 | #4,877 | 2.8 |
| 1968 | 5 | #4,604 | 2.9 |
| 1966 | 6 | #3,843 | 3.4 |
| 1963 | 6 | #3,946 | 3.0 |
| 1961 | 5 | #4,526 | 2.4 |
| 1957 | 7 | #3,489 | 3.2 |
| 1955 | 7 | #3,437 | 3.4 |
| 1954 | 10 | #2,698 | 4.9 |
| 1953 | 8 | #3,089 | 4.1 |
| 1952 | 5 | #4,140 | 2.6 |
| 1950 | 6 | #3,604 | 3.4 |
| 1949 | 14 | #2,097 | 7.9 |
| 1948 | 8 | #2,960 | 4.6 |
| 1947 | 7 | #3,301 | 3.8 |
| 1945 | 6 | #3,247 | 4.5 |
| 1943 | 7 | #3,173 | 4.9 |
| 1938 | 5 | #3,927 | 4.5 |
| 1936 | 8 | #2,806 | 7.7 |
| 1935 | 5 | #4,041 | 4.8 |
| 1929 | 5 | #4,427 | 4.6 |
| 1926 | 5 | #4,697 | 4.5 |
| 1924 | 6 | #4,248 | 5.3 |
| 1918 | 7 | #3,635 | 6.9 |
| 1915 | 7 | #3,329 | 8.2 |
| 1914 | 6 | #3,188 | 9.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Read a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Read has been recorded only for boys: SSA lists no girls with the name in 48 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Read: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Read, and how old are they?
An estimated 210 Americans named Read and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (68% of everyone recorded); the median is 40 years old and half are between 28 and 65. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 374 people named Read (29 women and girls, 345 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 227 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.6 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.
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 79,602 babies since 1880, Read is the fourth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 1,996 babies recorded by SSA was a Read (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.
More about Read and names like it
- Compare Read and ReidBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1940sRead peaked in 1949.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Read: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1949The year the most babies were named Read.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Read alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with RMost given first.