Raye
Feminine
Raye is given to both — 2,297 girls and 306 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
In the early twentieth century American parents feminised men's names by adding a silent e. Raye, Faye, Kaye, Maye, Jaye and Claye all appear together in the records, and the letter does nothing at all except say that the child is a girl.
How old is the name Raye?
Raye first appears in US birth records in 1889 — 136 years ago. The typical Raye alive today was born around 1954, making them about 71 years old. About 1,500 people named Raye are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Raye most popular?
Raye peaked in 1912, reaching #1143 nationally. Today it ranks #6546, 5,403 places below that high. See the whole 1912 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ray to Raye
The story of Raye
The silent final e is one of English orthography's most useless letters and one of its most useful signals. It marks nothing in speech, and American naming of the 1900s to 1930s used it precisely because it marked nothing: a name could be kept exactly as it sounded and still be visibly a woman's on paper. The device ran for about thirty years and then gave way to the -i and -ie endings, and later to -eigh, each doing the same job with different letters. Raye's best year in United States records is 1912, and the whole family declined together after the First World War.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
Ray has more than one source. As a short form of Raymond the meaning is Germanic, from ragin, counsel, and mund, protection. As an English surname it may be from a nickname meaning a king or from the roe deer. As a word it is a beam of light, from Latin radius. The silent e of this spelling carries no meaning of its own.
How the name formed
- Ray
- Raye
Related forms: Rae · Ray
Pronouncing Raye
RAY
One syllable, rhyming with day. The final e is silent and adds nothing to the sound; Ray, Rae and Raye are identical aloud.
Nicknames for Raye
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
- 1889
- Most girls named
- 195667 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1143reached in 1912
- Change vs 2023
- +13.3%17 in 2025, from 15
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.
Raye in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rae in English — spelling variant
- Ray in English — spelling variant
Rayes among us
people named Raye are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 94,545 born in 2025 was named Raye
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Raye 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
Raye beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Raye in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable and four letters, impossible to mispronounce.
- The e marks it as a woman's name without changing anything.
- Genuinely period-authentic to the early twentieth century.
- Rae is now the far more common feminine spelling.
- Ray is read as a man's name and will be written for you.
- It reads as a name of the 1910s and 1920s in American ears.
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What they receive
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Raye
Feminine · #6546 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rayes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Raye are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Raye in 2025?
- Raye ranks #6546 among US girl names in 2025, with 17 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Raye?
- About 1 in every 94,545 US girls born in 2025 was named Raye — 17 in all.
- Will my child share the name Raye with classmates?
- Raye will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Raye
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Roseann#6546 · Solveig#6546 · Elona#6546 · Rosette#6546 · Bradie#6546 · Rida#6546 · Gwendalyn#6546 · Lorene#6546
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Raye? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Raye and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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