Head to head · Boys' names
Remy vs Rylan
#408 vs #416 in 2025
Remy is a whisker ahead (#408 vs #416 in 2025), but the curves point different ways: Remy is holding its place on the charts, Rylan is stepping back from its peak.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
The tale of the tape
On the charts, Remy leads 3 measures of 6; Rylan leads 2.
Ranks, counts and years are measured in the official US birth record; the classroom and living figures are estimates computed from it. The dot marks the side each measure favours on the charts — more common, not better.
What the records say
146 years of US births, drawn on one scale
Two curves, one scale
Who owned which decade
- 1910s: Remy #3154, Rylan — — Remy higher
- 1920s: Remy #3387, Rylan — — Remy higher
- 1930s: Remy #3662, Rylan — — Remy higher
- 1940s: Remy #3370, Rylan — — Remy higher
- 1950s: Remy #2905, Rylan — — Remy higher
- 1960s: Remy #2821, Rylan #3673 — Remy higher
- 1970s: Remy #3437, Rylan #2974 — Rylan higher
- 1980s: Remy #2099, Rylan #1624 — Rylan higher
- 1990s: Remy #1470, Rylan #1084 — Rylan higher
- 2000s: Remy #1297, Rylan #355 — Rylan higher
- 2010s: Remy #629, Rylan #233 — Rylan higher
- 2020s: Remy #378, Rylan #367 — Rylan higher
The decades split evenly, 6 each; Rylan has held the lead since the 1970s.
Rank by decade
| Decade | Remy | Rylan |
|---|---|---|
| 1910s | #3154 | — |
| 1920s | #3387 | — |
| 1930s | #3662 | — |
| 1940s | #3370 | — |
| 1950s | #2905 | — |
| 1960s | #2821 | #3673 |
| 1970s | #3437 | #2974 |
| 1980s | #2099 | #1624 |
| 1990s | #1470 | #1084 |
| 2000s | #1297 | #355 |
| 2010s | #629 | #233 |
| 2020s | #378 | #367 |
Average national rank across each decade. A dash means the name sat outside the recorded top of that decade.
The names themselves
Meaning, roots, sound and the people who carried each
Where each name comes from
Remy
oarsman, rower
From Latin Remigius, built on remex, remigis — the man at the oar. The saint's fame in Gaul, not the word itself, is what carried the name forward.
Remigius → Rémi → Rémy → Remy
How it traveled
The Latin Remigius belonged most famously to the bishop of Reims who died around 533 and who baptized the Frankish king Clovis, an event that anchored the name in northern France for good. Medieval French wore it down to Rémi and Rémy, and the accent-free Remy is simply what the name looks like once English gets hold of it.
Rylan
'rye land' — land where rye is grown — if read through the surname Ryland
Two readings compete. Ryland is a documented English surname from a place name built on Old English words for rye and land, and Rylan is the most natural clipping of it. But Rylan also fits the American pattern of building new names from familiar pieces — the Ry- of Ryan and Riley with the -lan ending of Dylan and Nolan — and many families arrive at it that way with no surname in mind. Both roads lead to the same spelling.
Old English ryge + land (rye field) → Ryland (English place name, then surname) → Rylan
How it traveled
The older thread is English: Ryland began as a place name and then a surname, from the ordinary business of naming a farm for the crop growing on it. Surnames of that kind crossed to America and, over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, were steadily promoted into first names — a habit that gave English speakers Ryder, Riley, Carter and dozens more.
Where a reading is contested the note says so — this page does not turn a guess into a fact. The chain is each name's recorded forms, oldest first; the story is its opening, told in full on the name's own page.
Out loud, and in short
Remy
REM-ee
Standard in American English, stress on the first syllable. The French Rémy is ray-MEE, with the stress at the back — worth deciding which one you want before the name is handed to a room full of relatives.
- Rem — The obvious clipped form; used informally and rarely written on anything official.
- Remmy — A doubled-consonant spelling used affectionately, mostly by family.
- Rey — Occasional, and stands on its own as a given name elsewhere.
Rylan
RY-lan
First syllable rhymes with 'eye', stress on it. The second syllable is unstressed and comes out somewhere between '-lan' and '-lun' depending on the speaker; no one will correct you either way.
- Ry — The standard short form, informal, used at home and among friends; occasionally given on its own but rarely.
- Ry-Ry — A doubled nursery form, used by family with small children and usually dropped by school age.
- Rye — Less common, chosen by families who like the word behind the surname.
Is it right for you
The differences that decide it, laid out by what you want
Choose by what you want
Choose Remy if you want…
On the measures here, the records do not separate Remy from Rylan.
Choose Rylan if you want…
- a name past its most crowded yearsRylan is stepping back from its peak
Each line is a measured difference between the two names — a rank, a count, a recorded form — never a judgement of either. Save the one that answers your question; it lands on your shortlist.
The trade-offs, name by name
Remy
Strengths
- Two syllables, five letters, and spelled the way an English speaker hears it — no accent to lose in forms and databases.
- Works for a girl or a boy without either use looking like a mistake, since American records carry both.
- A documented line running back to late-antique Gaul, with living forms in French, Italian, Spanish and Polish.
To consider
- Two pronunciations compete: the English REM-ee and the French ray-MEE. Both are correct for the name, so expect to correct people occasionally, and expect the correction to be easy.
- Rémy Martin cognac and the cooking rat in Pixar's Ratatouille are the two associations most Americans reach for first. Neither is a problem, but you will hear about them.
- The spelling splits three ways — Remy, Remi, Rémy — so the name will sometimes be written back to you in a form you didn't choose.
Rylan
Strengths
- Spelled the way it sounds — most people write it correctly after hearing it once, and read it correctly after seeing it once.
- Has a real, ready-made short form in Ry, which needs no explanation to anyone.
- Sits beside Ryan, Riley and Dylan, so it is unfamiliar as a whole while every part of it is already known.
To consider
- It lives in a crowded sound-space. Expect to be heard as Ryan or Riley over the phone, and expect Ryland, Rylen and Rylin to be offered as spellings until you correct them.
- Most Rylans are boys, though a real minority are girls. A girl named Rylan will meet forms and teachers that guess wrong, which is manageable but worth knowing in advance.
- This is a young name with no long tail behind it — it has not yet had time to sound like anyone's grandparent, and it is closely tied to the decades it rose in. That reads as fresh now and may read as datable later.
Documented properties of each name — how it spells, travels and shortens — not opinions about the child.
With your last name
Say both in full. The notes are facts about letters and sound — a rhyme, a shared initial, the monogram — not a verdict on either name.
Type a last name to hear Remy and Rylan in full.
Weighing the whole shortlist? Run the full comparison — up to eight names with your last name, initials, classroom projections and a printable report.
Decide together
Nobody names a baby alone
Still torn between Remy and Rylan?
Put both to the vote.
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More than two in the running? Settle it with a bracket or run the full comparison with your last name.
More head-to-heads
Same measures, different pair. Sixty more are dealt daily in the arena.
Lists that carry both names
Every list here names both Remy and Rylan — the same style, ranked by the same records.
Remy or Rylan — the short answers
- Which is more popular, Remy or Rylan?
- Remy, in 2025: Remy ranked #408 with 781 babies; Rylan ranked #416 with 771 babies.
- Which name is rising faster, Remy or Rylan?
- Neither is rising. Over the last five years Remy moved down 52 places; Rylan moved down 89 places.
- Which is the older name, Remy or Rylan?
- Remy entered the US charts in 1914; Rylan entered the US charts in 1968. On the American record, Remy is the older name.
- How many people are named Remy and Rylan?
- About 12,500 people named Remy are estimated to be alive in the US today. About 34,000 people named Rylan are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- Will there be other Remys or Rylans in the classroom?
- Remy will almost certainly be the only one in school. Rylan will almost certainly be the only one in school.
US figures from the Social Security Administration, 1880–2025. Votes are battle voters on this site, not the birth record. Data & methodology
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