Rhett
Rhett was given to 1,936 boys in 2025, #188 among boys’ names; 36,920 Americans have been recorded with it since 1917 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 35,800 Americans named Rhett and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (97% of everyone recorded); the median is 8 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 Rhett by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Rhett mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Rhett is “a male given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the sense “advice” (raet).
Name of a South Carolina family, anglicized from Dutch de Raedt, from Middle Dutch raet (“advice”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Rhett?
#188 among boys’ names, 2025
Rhett rose from #276 in 2015 to #188 in 2025 among boys’ names; its share of boys born rose from 0.70 to 1.1 per 1,000.
2,554 babies in 2021, the peak
Rhett peaked in 2021, when 2,554 babies were given it (2,538 boys, #149 among boys’ names). The 1,955 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 77% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,936 | #188 | 1.1 |
| 2024 | 2,138 | #174 | 1.2 |
| 2023 | 2,189 | #165 | 1.3 |
| 2022 | 2,501 | #151 | 1.4 |
| 2021 | 2,538 | #149 | 1.5 |
| 2020 | 2,350 | #159 | 1.4 |
| 2019 | 2,391 | #166 | 1.3 |
| 2018 | 2,313 | #167 | 1.3 |
| 2017 | 2,202 | #180 | 1.2 |
| 2016 | 1,768 | #220 | 0.93 |
Every recorded year (94)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 boys |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 1,341 | #276 | 0.70 |
| 2014 | 978 | #340 | 0.51 |
| 2013 | 688 | #426 | 0.36 |
| 2012 | 521 | #508 | 0.27 |
| 2011 | 447 | #564 | 0.24 |
| 2010 | 411 | #608 | 0.21 |
| 2009 | 373 | #660 | 0.19 |
| 2008 | 354 | #684 | 0.17 |
| 2007 | 332 | #704 | 0.16 |
| 2006 | 330 | #683 | 0.16 |
| 2005 | 298 | #693 | 0.15 |
| 2004 | 269 | #715 | 0.14 |
| 2003 | 283 | #685 | 0.14 |
| 2002 | 279 | #669 | 0.14 |
| 2001 | 239 | #728 | 0.12 |
| 2000 | 264 | #675 | 0.13 |
| 1999 | 237 | #705 | 0.12 |
| 1998 | 279 | #638 | 0.15 |
| 1997 | 292 | #608 | 0.15 |
| 1996 | 290 | #609 | 0.15 |
| 1995 | 240 | #682 | 0.13 |
| 1994 | 186 | #774 | 0.10 |
| 1993 | 172 | #805 | 0.09 |
| 1992 | 189 | #751 | 0.09 |
| 1991 | 138 | #896 | 0.07 |
| 1990 | 150 | #836 | 0.07 |
| 1989 | 161 | #780 | 0.08 |
| 1988 | 159 | #753 | 0.08 |
| 1987 | 170 | #701 | 0.09 |
| 1986 | 113 | #857 | 0.06 |
| 1985 | 155 | #714 | 0.08 |
| 1984 | 121 | #795 | 0.07 |
| 1983 | 146 | #712 | 0.08 |
| 1982 | 151 | #711 | 0.08 |
| 1981 | 148 | #713 | 0.08 |
| 1980 | 153 | #704 | 0.09 |
| 1979 | 166 | #664 | 0.10 |
| 1978 | 172 | #637 | 0.10 |
| 1977 | 202 | #595 | 0.12 |
| 1976 | 132 | #730 | 0.08 |
| 1975 | 142 | #699 | 0.09 |
| 1974 | 136 | #707 | 0.09 |
| 1973 | 118 | #738 | 0.08 |
| 1972 | 139 | #682 | 0.09 |
| 1971 | 155 | #662 | 0.09 |
| 1970 | 159 | #649 | 0.09 |
| 1969 | 151 | #645 | 0.08 |
| 1968 | 115 | #705 | 0.07 |
| 1967 | 81 | #809 | 0.05 |
| 1966 | 85 | #792 | 0.05 |
| 1965 | 67 | #910 | 0.04 |
| 1964 | 107 | #746 | 0.05 |
| 1963 | 98 | #772 | 0.05 |
| 1962 | 100 | #767 | 0.05 |
| 1961 | 105 | #751 | 0.05 |
| 1960 | 66 | #935 | 0.03 |
| 1959 | 62 | #984 | 0.03 |
| 1958 | 81 | #842 | 0.04 |
| 1957 | 45 | #1,159 | 0.02 |
| 1956 | 61 | #964 | 0.03 |
| 1955 | 77 | #841 | 0.04 |
| 1954 | 44 | #1,133 | 0.02 |
| 1953 | 40 | #1,182 | 0.02 |
| 1952 | 38 | #1,208 | 0.02 |
| 1951 | 25 | #1,511 | 0.01 |
| 1950 | 36 | #1,215 | 0.02 |
| 1949 | 22 | #1,602 | 0.01 |
| 1948 | 31 | #1,316 | 0.02 |
| 1947 | 29 | #1,387 | 0.02 |
| 1946 | 17 | #1,800 | 0.01 |
| 1945 | 12 | #2,106 | 0.01 |
| 1944 | 22 | #1,469 | 0.02 |
| 1943 | 18 | #1,750 | 0.01 |
| 1942 | 24 | #1,459 | 0.02 |
| 1941 | 26 | #1,327 | 0.02 |
| 1940 | 27 | #1,305 | 0.02 |
| 1939 | 8 | #2,779 | 0.01 |
| 1938 | 11 | #2,293 | 0.01 |
| 1937 | 6 | #3,460 | 0.01 |
| 1933 | 7 | #3,223 | 0.01 |
| 1931 | 6 | #3,674 | 0.01 |
| 1923 | 5 | #4,765 | under 0.01 |
| 1920 | 5 | #4,836 | under 0.01 |
| 1917 | 5 | #4,458 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: boys’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all boys SSA recorded that year.
Is Rhett a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Rhett has been given almost only to boys: 251 girls in 94 years of records.
Girls and boys named Rhett: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Rhett, and how old are they?
35,800 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 97% of the 36,920 Americans ever recorded as Rhett. The median Rhett alive today is 8 years old; half are between 5 and 17.
The 2020 Census counted 21,549 people named Rhett (230 women and girls, 21,319 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 23,017 born in the U.S. The Census count is 6% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 51 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 764 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,930 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,570 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 5,170 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 25,400 |
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 Rhett born?
The states with the most babies named Rhett are Texas, Florida and Georgia, with 19% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, boys | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 168 | #235 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 96 | #223 | 0.8× |
| Georgia | 94 | #127 | 1.4× |
| Tennessee | 84 | #111 | 1.3× |
| California | 81 | #409 | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 81 | #166 | 0.9× |
| Missouri | 76 | #84 | 1.5× |
| Indiana | 75 | #105 | 1.3× |
| Pennsylvania | 63 | #203 | 0.6× |
| North Carolina | 62 | #203 | 0.9× |
Where Rhett is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Rhett is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1917 it was given 2.3 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 Rhett 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 37,299 babies since 1880, Rhett is the most given (99% of them). In 2025 it was given to 1,955 of their 1,963 babies (100%), 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 Rhett
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 Rhett and names like it
- Compare Rhett and RhetBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sRhett peaked in 2021.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Rhett since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Rhett: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2021The year the most babies were named Rhett.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Rhett alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with RMost given first.