Raleigh
Feminine · “roe deer clearing”
Raleigh is given to both — 3,057 girls and 9,279 boys since 1880. See Raleigh as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Raleigh is a Devon place name — the roe-deer clearing — carried by a man who lost his head to James I and gave his name to a state capital.
How old is the name Raleigh?
Raleigh first appears in US birth records in 1923 — 102 years ago. The typical Raleigh is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,000 people named Raleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Raleigh most popular?
Raleigh peaked in 2016, reaching #1380 nationally. Today it ranks #1880, 500 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Raleigh appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From ra leah to Raleigh
The story of Raleigh
Walter Raleigh sponsored the Roanoke colony, spent thirteen years in the Tower, and was executed in 1618. North Carolina named its capital for him in 1792. The surname entered American given-name use in the nineteenth century for boys and, from the 2010s, for girls. Feminine Raleigh is in current use.
Meaningscholars disagree
roe deer clearing
From the Old English ra, 'roe deer', and leah, 'wood' or 'clearing'. A second reading takes the first element as read, 'red'. Both are documented for the Devon places from which the surname comes, and neither is settled.
How the name formed
- ra leah
- Raleigh
Related forms: Rawley · Raley
Pronouncing Raleigh
RAW-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Some American speakers say RAL-ee, and both are established.
Nicknames for Raleigh
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1923
- Most girls named
- 2016170 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1380reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- 0.0%104 in 2025, from 104
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Raleigh in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rawley in English — spelling variant
- Raley in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, Louisiana.
Raleighs among us
people named Raleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 15,454 born in 2025 was named Raleigh
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Malaika test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Raleigh's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Malaika climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Malaika's path sketches the road Raleigh is walking now.
Raleigh sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Raleigh is headed
Raleigh should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Raleigh beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Raleigh in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The roe-deer clearing meaning is concrete and belongs to a real family of place names.
- A genuinely eventful historical figure and a state capital carry it.
- Rae and Lee are two short forms, both with real records.
- The first vowel splits between two readings.
- It reads as masculine and as a surname to most English speakers.
- The -eigh will need dictating every time.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Raleigh
Feminine · #1880 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Raleighs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,000 people named Raleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Raleigh in 2025?
- Raleigh ranks #1880 among US girl names in 2025, with 104 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Raleigh?
- About 1 in every 15,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Raleigh — 104 in all.
- Will my child share the name Raleigh with classmates?
- Raleigh will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Raleigh
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Kiari#1880 · Azuri#1880 · Samaria#1880 · Divine#1880 · Akari#1880 · Aashvi#1880 · Analiyah#1880 · Dhriti#1880
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Raleigh? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Raleigh and another name?
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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