Reilly
Reilly is given to both girls and boys: 60 girls and 48 boys were given it in 2025 (#2,855 among girls’ names and #2,708 among boys’, #3,373 among all names counting both); 10,088 Americans have been recorded with it since 1953 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026). Girls have outnumbered boys among babies named Reilly every year since 2024.
An estimated 9,930 Americans named Reilly and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 22 years old and half are between 16 and 27.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Reilly by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Reilly mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Reilly is “a unisex given name transferred from the surname, of modern usage.” Its etymology gives the sense “descendants of Raghallach” (meaning).
From Irish Ó Raghallaigh, a surname meaning “descendants of Raghallach”.
/ˈɹaɪli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Reilly?
#2,855 among girls’ names, 2025
Reilly fell from #2,137 in 2015 to #2,855 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 50.4 to 37.3 per million.
543 babies in 1997, the peak
Reilly peaked in 1997, when 543 babies were given it (360 girls, #623 among girls’ names). The 108 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 20% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 60 | #2,855 | 48 | #2,708 |
| 2024 | 64 | #2,714 | 46 | #2,822 |
| 2023 | 50 | #3,261 | 56 | #2,428 |
| 2022 | 65 | #2,678 | 55 | #2,508 |
| 2021 | 65 | #2,666 | 60 | #2,318 |
| 2020 | 81 | #2,236 | 51 | #2,537 |
| 2019 | 81 | #2,267 | 72 | #2,036 |
| 2018 | 72 | #2,472 | 71 | #2,038 |
| 2017 | 75 | #2,422 | 64 | #2,150 |
| 2016 | 99 | #2,013 | 95 | #1,671 |
Every recorded year (52)
| Year | Girls | Girls’ rank | Boys | Boys’ rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 90 | #2,137 | 84 | #1,800 |
| 2014 | 89 | #2,152 | 104 | #1,546 |
| 2013 | 103 | #1,936 | 114 | #1,457 |
| 2012 | 108 | #1,870 | 149 | #1,205 |
| 2011 | 140 | #1,569 | 143 | #1,226 |
| 2010 | 139 | #1,581 | 163 | #1,142 |
| 2009 | 163 | #1,438 | 172 | #1,084 |
| 2008 | 193 | #1,293 | 210 | #958 |
| 2007 | 199 | #1,246 | 218 | #911 |
| 2006 | 178 | #1,321 | 174 | #1,046 |
| 2005 | 241 | #1,014 | 178 | #977 |
| 2004 | 268 | #907 | 168 | #989 |
| 2003 | 276 | #876 | 196 | #874 |
| 2002 | 305 | #776 | 204 | #822 |
| 2001 | 325 | #738 | 202 | #816 |
| 2000 | 289 | #795 | 194 | #825 |
| 1999 | 324 | #698 | 174 | #870 |
| 1998 | 379 | #623 | 159 | #907 |
| 1997 | 360 | #623 | 183 | #804 |
| 1996 | 173 | #1,073 | 143 | #919 |
| 1995 | 84 | #1,740 | 95 | #1,185 |
| 1994 | 78 | #1,832 | 66 | #1,462 |
| 1993 | 69 | #2,025 | 70 | #1,388 |
| 1992 | 39 | #3,016 | 54 | #1,628 |
| 1991 | 38 | #3,021 | 45 | #1,784 |
| 1990 | 52 | #2,387 | 43 | #1,829 |
| 1989 | 21 | #4,471 | 25 | #2,590 |
| 1988 | 14 | #5,816 | 32 | #2,019 |
| 1987 | 17 | #4,821 | 19 | #2,805 |
| 1986 | 16 | #4,900 | 35 | #1,782 |
| 1985 | 7 | #9,034 | 39 | #1,639 |
| 1984 | 5 | #11,697 | 16 | #2,920 |
| 1983 | 7 | #8,739 | 13 | #3,377 |
| 1982 | 8 | #8,025 | 11 | #3,898 |
| 1981 | 5 | #11,684 | 11 | #3,800 |
| 1980 | 8 | #7,948 | 5 | #7,056 |
| 1979 | under 5 | 8 | #4,751 | |
| 1978 | 6 | #9,421 | under 5 | |
| 1975 | under 5 | 5 | #6,126 | |
| 1974 | under 5 | 5 | #5,828 | |
| 1958 | under 5 | 7 | #3,503 | |
| 1953 | under 5 | 6 | #3,709 |
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 Reilly a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 10,088 Americans recorded as Reilly, 55% are girls and 45% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Reilly: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Reilly, and how old are they?
9,930 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 10,088 Americans ever recorded as Reilly. The median Reilly alive today is 22 years old; half are between 16 and 27.
The 2020 Census counted 9,187 people named Reilly (5,121 women and girls, 4,066 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 9,308 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 9 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 34 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,310 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 6,680 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 1,900 |
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 Reilly born?
The states with the most babies named Reilly are California, New York and Illinois, with 62% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 6 | not ranked | 0.6× |
| New York | 6 | #2,022 | 1.1× |
| Illinois | 6 | #1,369 | 0.9× |
| New Jersey | 6 | #1,139 | 1.2× |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | #1,572 | 1.5× |
Where Reilly is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Reilly is most over-represented in Pennsylvania: since 1953 it was given 1.5 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 Reilly 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 4 names spelled alike, given to 12,642 babies since 1880, Reilly is the most given (80% of them). In 2025 it was given to 108 of their 120 babies (90%), 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 Reilly
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 Reilly and names like it
- Compare Reilly and RellaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sReilly peaked in 1997.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Reilly since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Reilly: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1997The year the most babies were named Reilly.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Reilly alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with RMost given first.