Rei
Rei is given to both girls and boys: 24 girls and 35 boys were given it in 2025 (#5,363 among girls’ names and #3,362 among boys’, #5,057 among all names counting both); 1,028 Americans have been recorded with it since 1974 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 1,020 Americans named Rei 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 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rei by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Rei?
#5,363 among girls’ names, 2025
Rei rose from #8,839 in 2015 to #5,363 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 7.3 to 14.9 per million.
67 babies in 2019, the peak
Rei peaked in 2019, when 67 babies were given it (37 girls, #3,984 among girls’ names). The 59 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 88% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 24 | #5,363 | 35 | #3,362 |
| 2024 | 27 | #4,994 | 29 | #3,872 |
| 2023 | 27 | #4,965 | 19 | #5,198 |
| 2022 | 21 | #5,937 | 19 | #5,171 |
| 2021 | 33 | #4,300 | 34 | #3,401 |
| 2020 | 48 | #3,269 | 16 | #5,639 |
| 2019 | 37 | #3,984 | 30 | #3,695 |
| 2018 | 33 | #4,327 | 28 | #3,861 |
| 2017 | 40 | #3,828 | 22 | #4,561 |
| 2016 | 27 | #5,097 | 14 | #6,272 |
Every recorded year (37)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 13 | #8,839 | 21 | #4,671 |
| 2014 | 5 | #18,621 | 9 | #8,633 |
| 2013 | 11 | #10,102 | 6 | #11,834 |
| 2012 | 16 | #7,714 | 8 | #9,508 |
| 2011 | 21 | #6,294 | 14 | #6,176 |
| 2010 | 14 | #8,614 | 15 | #5,968 |
| 2009 | 9 | #12,226 | 13 | #6,724 |
| 2008 | 10 | #11,420 | 21 | #4,666 |
| 2007 | 15 | #8,432 | 14 | #6,192 |
| 2006 | 8 | #13,340 | 8 | #9,366 |
| 2005 | 13 | #8,751 | 8 | #8,918 |
| 2004 | 13 | #8,607 | 13 | #6,060 |
| 2003 | 14 | #7,904 | 16 | #4,985 |
| 2002 | 12 | #8,704 | 12 | #5,989 |
| 2001 | 7 | #13,161 | 8 | #8,142 |
| 2000 | under 5 | 10 | #6,711 | |
| 1999 | 9 | #10,135 | 9 | #6,964 |
| 1998 | under 5 | 10 | #6,189 | |
| 1997 | under 5 | 7 | #7,933 | |
| 1995 | 6 | #12,989 | under 5 | |
| 1992 | under 5 | 5 | #9,500 | |
| 1991 | 5 | #14,824 | under 5 | |
| 1990 | 7 | #11,074 | under 5 | |
| 1989 | 7 | #10,552 | under 5 | |
| 1988 | 7 | #10,087 | under 5 | |
| 1987 | 6 | #10,911 | 5 | #7,866 |
| 1974 | 5 | #9,818 | under 5 |
Ranks: girls’ names and boys’ names ranked separately in each year’s SSA file; “under 5” is a year SSA did not list the name for that sex.
Is Rei a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 1,028 Americans recorded as Rei, 54% are girls and 46% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Rei: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rei, and how old are they?
1,020 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 1,028 Americans ever recorded as Rei. The median Rei alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 1,255 people named Rei (692 women and girls, 563 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 706 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census records the name people give, which for many is the short form Rei rather than the name on their birth record, and it counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 5 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 47 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 343 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 624 |
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 Rei born?
The states with the most babies named Rei are New York, California and Texas, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 6 | not ranked | 0.5× |
| California | 5 | #3,429 | 1.3× |
| Texas | 5 | not ranked | 0.1× |
Where Rei is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Rei is most over-represented in California: since 1974 it was given 1.3 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 Rei 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 8 names spelled alike, given to 27,261 babies since 1880, Rei is the fourth most given (3.8% of them). In 2025 it was given to 59 of their 820 babies (7.2%), the third 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 Rei
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 Rei and names like it
- Compare Rei and RheaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sRei peaked in 2019.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rei since 1910.
- The top names of 2019The year the most babies were named Rei.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Rei alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.