Rey
Rey was given to 262 boys in 2025, #908 among boys’ names; 10,222 Americans have been recorded with it since 1915 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 9,580 Americans named Rey and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (94% of everyone recorded); the median is 16 years old and half are between 8 and 30.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Rey by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Rey mean?
Wiktionary, Spanish section
Rey is “a male given name”
/ˈrei/
Meaning: Wiktionary, Spanish section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Rey?
#908 among boys’ names, 2025
Rey fell from #900 in 2015 to #908 in 2025 among boys’ names, although its share of boys born rose from 0.13 to 0.15 per 1,000.
394 babies in 2021, the peak
Rey peaked in 2021, when 394 babies were given it (328 boys, #764 among boys’ names). The 286 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 73% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 262 | #908 | 0.15 |
| 2024 | 304 | #823 | 0.18 |
| 2023 | 318 | #792 | 0.19 |
| 2022 | 320 | #790 | 0.18 |
| 2021 | 328 | #764 | 0.19 |
| 2020 | 257 | #880 | 0.15 |
| 2019 | 287 | #801 | 0.16 |
| 2018 | 314 | #755 | 0.17 |
| 2017 | 303 | #773 | 0.16 |
| 2016 | 257 | #870 | 0.14 |
Every recorded year (110)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 242 | #900 | 0.13 |
| 2014 | 245 | #886 | 0.13 |
| 2013 | 229 | #910 | 0.12 |
| 2012 | 225 | #921 | 0.12 |
| 2011 | 212 | #940 | 0.11 |
| 2010 | 249 | #852 | 0.13 |
| 2009 | 232 | #897 | 0.12 |
| 2008 | 247 | #863 | 0.12 |
| 2007 | 215 | #923 | 0.10 |
| 2006 | 236 | #855 | 0.11 |
| 2005 | 199 | #903 | 0.10 |
| 2004 | 170 | #983 | 0.09 |
| 2003 | 173 | #949 | 0.09 |
| 2002 | 177 | #911 | 0.09 |
| 2001 | 155 | #989 | 0.08 |
| 2000 | 151 | #983 | 0.08 |
| 1999 | 149 | #969 | 0.08 |
| 1998 | 137 | #1,000 | 0.07 |
| 1997 | 120 | #1,057 | 0.06 |
| 1996 | 119 | #1,034 | 0.06 |
| 1995 | 113 | #1,058 | 0.06 |
| 1994 | 101 | #1,129 | 0.05 |
| 1993 | 109 | #1,065 | 0.06 |
| 1992 | 90 | #1,172 | 0.05 |
| 1991 | 112 | #1,017 | 0.06 |
| 1990 | 98 | #1,078 | 0.05 |
| 1989 | 80 | #1,199 | 0.04 |
| 1988 | 78 | #1,139 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 66 | #1,190 | 0.04 |
| 1986 | 75 | #1,084 | 0.04 |
| 1985 | 69 | #1,122 | 0.04 |
| 1984 | 61 | #1,171 | 0.03 |
| 1983 | 60 | #1,177 | 0.03 |
| 1982 | 53 | #1,288 | 0.03 |
| 1981 | 71 | #1,083 | 0.04 |
| 1980 | 46 | #1,406 | 0.03 |
| 1979 | 59 | #1,189 | 0.03 |
| 1978 | 50 | #1,281 | 0.03 |
| 1977 | 48 | #1,310 | 0.03 |
| 1976 | 52 | #1,208 | 0.03 |
| 1975 | 50 | #1,203 | 0.03 |
| 1974 | 52 | #1,148 | 0.03 |
| 1973 | 46 | #1,229 | 0.03 |
| 1972 | 53 | #1,127 | 0.03 |
| 1971 | 51 | #1,156 | 0.03 |
| 1970 | 45 | #1,249 | 0.02 |
| 1969 | 46 | #1,162 | 0.03 |
| 1968 | 35 | #1,309 | 0.02 |
| 1967 | 40 | #1,195 | 0.02 |
| 1966 | 26 | #1,535 | 0.01 |
| 1965 | 37 | #1,268 | 0.02 |
| 1964 | 51 | #1,069 | 0.03 |
| 1963 | 56 | #1,014 | 0.03 |
| 1962 | 46 | #1,142 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 50 | #1,118 | 0.02 |
| 1960 | 54 | #1,055 | 0.03 |
| 1959 | 49 | #1,113 | 0.02 |
| 1958 | 42 | #1,200 | 0.02 |
| 1957 | 32 | #1,405 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 32 | #1,377 | 0.02 |
| 1955 | 30 | #1,413 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 21 | #1,694 | 0.01 |
| 1953 | 28 | #1,450 | 0.01 |
| 1952 | 24 | #1,576 | 0.01 |
| 1951 | 19 | #1,762 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 20 | #1,692 | 0.01 |
| 1949 | 22 | #1,601 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 17 | #1,869 | 0.01 |
| 1947 | 8 | #3,052 | under 0.01 |
| 1946 | 18 | #1,745 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 16 | #1,751 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 8 | #2,818 | 0.01 |
| 1943 | 15 | #1,974 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 12 | #2,236 | 0.01 |
| 1941 | 7 | #3,083 | 0.01 |
| 1940 | 11 | #2,291 | 0.01 |
| 1939 | 6 | #3,416 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 15 | #1,881 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 10 | #2,445 | 0.01 |
| 1935 | 8 | #2,897 | 0.01 |
| 1934 | 10 | #2,529 | 0.01 |
| 1933 | 13 | #2,076 | 0.01 |
| 1932 | 13 | #2,169 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 14 | #2,082 | 0.01 |
| 1930 | 6 | #3,922 | 0.01 |
| 1929 | 10 | #2,727 | 0.01 |
| 1928 | 14 | #2,246 | 0.01 |
| 1927 | 8 | #3,389 | 0.01 |
| 1926 | 6 | #4,093 | 0.01 |
| 1925 | 9 | #3,100 | 0.01 |
| 1924 | 6 | #4,253 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 11 | #2,739 | 0.01 |
| 1922 | 5 | #4,829 | under 0.01 |
| 1921 | 5 | #4,846 | under 0.01 |
| 1920 | 8 | #3,433 | 0.01 |
| 1919 | 5 | #4,676 | 0.01 |
| 1918 | 5 | #4,682 | under 0.01 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,457 | 0.01 |
| 1916 | 7 | #3,447 | 0.01 |
| 1915 | 5 | #4,289 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Rey a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 10,222 Americans recorded as Rey, 5% are girls and 95% boys. In 2025 it went to 24 girls and 262 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Rey: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rey, and how old are they?
9,580 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 94% of the 10,222 Americans ever recorded as Rey. The median Rey alive today is 16 years old; half are between 8 and 30.
The 2020 Census counted 11,635 people named Rey (501 women and girls, 11,134 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 7,745 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.5 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.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 37 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 433 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 653 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,290 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 3,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,160 |
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 Rey born?
The states with the most babies named Rey are Texas, California and New York, with 71% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 74 | #458 | 2.5× |
| California | 67 | #478 | 2.0× |
| New York | 11 | #1,100 | 0.7× |
| Florida | 11 | #1,179 | 0.9× |
| Arizona | 10 | #666 | 1.8× |
| Washington | 9 | #721 | 0.5× |
| North Carolina | 8 | #1,007 | 0.5× |
| Illinois | 7 | #1,114 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 7 | #1,195 | 0.2× |
| Colorado | 5 | #934 | 0.5× |
Where Rey is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Rey is most over-represented in Texas: since 1915 it was given 2.5 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 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 Rey 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 2 names spelled alike, given to 11,084 babies since 1880, Rey is the most given (92% of them). In 2025 it was given to 286 of their 298 babies (96%), 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 Rey
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 Rey and names like it
- Compare Rey and ReoBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sRey peaked in 2021.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rey since 1910.
- Spanish namesWiktionary’s origin for Rey: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Rey.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Rey alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.