Reeve
Masculine · “a bailiff”
Reeve is given to both — 944 boys and 239 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Reeve is an Old English word for an officer — the man who administered a district for a lord or a king. Joined to the word for a shire, it gives the English sheriff.
How old is the name Reeve?
Reeve first appears in US birth records in 1913 — 112 years ago. The typical Reeve is a kid of about 12 — this name's wave is very recent. About 900 people named Reeve are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Reeve most popular?
Reeve peaked in 2016, reaching #2518 nationally. Today it ranks #3450, 932 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From gerefa to Reeve
The story of Reeve
The reeve was a real and important office in Anglo-Saxon and medieval England — the man who kept the accounts, supervised the labor and answered to the lord. Chaucer's Reeve is a thin, sharp man who knows exactly what everyone owes. The word became a surname for families who had held the office, and it reached America with colonial settlement. Its use as a given name is recent and belongs with Sawyer, Cooper and Fletcher.
Meaning
a bailiff, an administrator
From Old English gerefa, a local official; scir-gerefa, the reeve of the shire, became sheriff, and the village reeve appears in Chaucer as one of the pilgrims.
How the name formed
- gerefa
- reeve
- Reeve
Related forms: Reeves · Reave
Pronouncing Reeve
REEV
One syllable, rhyming with leave. There is no variation.
Nicknames for Reeve
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
- 1913
- Most boys named
- 201650 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2518reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- −2.9%33 in 2025, from 34
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.
Reeve in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Reeves in English — related form
- Reave in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas.
Reeves among us
people named Reeve are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 51,760 born in 2025 was named Reeve
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 Tamer test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Reeve's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tamer climbed just as high around 1982, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tamer's path sketches the road Reeve is walking now.
Reeve 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 Reeve is headed
Reeve 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.
Reeve beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Reeve in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled occupational meaning with a real and well-documented office behind it.
- One syllable and five letters, easy to write and impossible to mispronounce.
- It fits the current group of occupational names without being one of the crowded ones.
- Reeves with an s is the more common surname and will be written for him.
- It reads as a surname to people meeting it in front of another one.
- A one-syllable name gives little room for a nickname.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Reeve
Masculine · #3450 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Reeves are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 900 people named Reeve are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Reeve in 2025?
- Reeve ranks #3450 among US boy names in 2025, with 33 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Reeve?
- About 1 in every 51,760 US boys born in 2025 was named Reeve — 33 in all.
- Will my child share the name Reeve with classmates?
- Reeve will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Reeve
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sabastian#3450 · Luc#3450 · Deshaun#3450 · Trayvon#3450 · Blade#3450 · Oz#3450 · Josiyah#3450 · Fausto#3450
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Reeve? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Reeve and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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