Reef
Reef is given to both girls and boys: 7 girls and 54 boys were given it in 2025 (#12,892 among girls’ names and #2,509 among boys’, #4,943 among all names counting both); 1,353 Americans have been recorded with it since 1996 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,340 Americans named Reef and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 5 and 17.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Reef by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Reef?
#2,509 among boys’ names, 2025
Reef fell from #2,476 in 2015 to #2,509 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 26.6 to 31.6 per million.
89 babies in 2021, the peak
Reef peaked in 2021, when 89 babies were given it (81 boys, #1,897 among boys’ names). The 61 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 69% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 54 | #2,509 | 31.6 |
| 2024 | 53 | #2,548 | 30.8 |
| 2023 | 68 | #2,143 | 39.8 |
| 2022 | 62 | #2,313 | 35.5 |
| 2021 | 81 | #1,897 | 46.3 |
| 2020 | 58 | #2,342 | 33.6 |
| 2019 | 71 | #2,059 | 39.6 |
| 2018 | 53 | #2,464 | 29.2 |
| 2017 | 51 | #2,523 | 27.6 |
| 2016 | 57 | #2,329 | 30.0 |
Every recorded year (30)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 51 | #2,476 | 26.6 |
| 2014 | 54 | #2,395 | 28.1 |
| 2013 | 49 | #2,513 | 25.9 |
| 2012 | 51 | #2,475 | 26.9 |
| 2011 | 72 | #1,941 | 37.9 |
| 2010 | 64 | #2,112 | 33.4 |
| 2009 | 51 | #2,511 | 25.7 |
| 2008 | 51 | #2,497 | 25.0 |
| 2007 | 39 | #3,010 | 18.8 |
| 2006 | 47 | #2,565 | 22.9 |
| 2005 | 32 | #3,218 | 16.0 |
| 2004 | 27 | #3,517 | 13.6 |
| 2003 | 16 | #4,983 | 8.1 |
| 2002 | 24 | #3,639 | 12.4 |
| 2001 | 14 | #5,336 | 7.2 |
| 2000 | 10 | #6,709 | 5.1 |
| 1999 | 9 | #6,963 | 4.7 |
| 1998 | 9 | #6,714 | 4.7 |
| 1997 | 6 | #9,009 | 3.2 |
| 1996 | 6 | #8,767 | 3.2 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Reef a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,353 Americans recorded as Reef, 5% are girls and 95% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Reef: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Reef, and how old are they?
1,340 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,353 Americans ever recorded as Reef. The median Reef alive today is 11 years old; half are between 5 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 968 people named Reef (63 women and girls, 905 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 946 born in the U.S. The Census count is 2% above that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 6 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 522 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 812 |
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 Reef born?
The states with the most babies named Reef are Florida, California and Hawaii, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Hawaii is not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 20 | #773 | 4.0× |
| California | 11 | #1,561 | 1.8× |
| Hawaii | 8 | #145 | 29.3× |
Where Reef is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Reef is most over-represented in Hawaii: since 1996 it was given 29.3 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 boys’ 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 Reef with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Reef
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 Reef and names like it
- Compare Reef and JahsiahBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sReef peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Reef since 1910.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Reef.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Reef alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.