Reginal
Masculine · “counsel-ruler”
Reginal is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,589 boys against 5 girls since 1880.
Reginal drops the d that Latin put on the end. The Germanic name had no d; medieval Latin added one when it turned Raginald into Reginaldus, English inherited it, and this spelling quietly gives it back — which puts the name closer to its source than the standard form is.
How old is the name Reginal?
Reginal first appears in US birth records in 1914 — 111 years ago. The typical Reginal alive today was born around 1972, making them about 53 years old. About 2,100 people named Reginal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Reginal most popular?
Reginal peaked in 1970, reaching #839 nationally. See the whole 1970 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Raginwald to Reginal
The story of Reginal
Latin did this to a great many Germanic names. Clerks writing legal documents had to decline them, and a name ending in a vowel or a soft consonant is awkward to decline, so a d or a us was added and then stayed: Reginaldus, Arnaldus, Bernardus, Ricardus. English took the Latinized forms because those were the ones written down. Reginal is what the name looks like without that layer, and despite its closeness to Regina, the American record gives it almost entirely to boys, as the Germanic original would predict.
Meaning
counsel-ruler
The Germanic compound joins the counsel of the gods to a ruler. It is the same name as Ronald, arriving by a different road, and the final consonant is a Latin addition rather than part of it.
How the name formed
- Raginwald
- Reginaldus
- Reginal
Related forms: Renaud · Rinaldo · Reinhold
Pronouncing Reginal
REJ-in-ul
Three syllables with the weight at the front. Reginald and Reginal are said nearly identically, the final consonant being the only difference.
Nicknames for Reginal
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
- 1914
- Most boys named
- 197092 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #839reached in 1970
- Change vs 2017
- −44.4%5 in 2024, from 9
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.
Reginal in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Renaud in French — same name
- Rinaldo in Italian — same name
- Reinhold in German — same name
Reginals among us
people named Reginal are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Reginal sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- It is read correctly at sight by anyone who has met the commoner spelling.
- Reggie is a ready short form with a life of its own.
- It sits behind a name with a documented history from the Franks to the present.
- Reginald is the standard spelling and will be written instead.
- The spelling is recorded for girls as well as boys, largely through the resemblance to Regina.
- It reads clearly as a name of the first half of the twentieth century.
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Reginal
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Reginals are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Reginal are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Reginal in 2025?
- Reginal is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Reginal with classmates?
- Reginal will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More R names
The most-given names starting with R, all years combined.
Robert#92 · Richard#234 · Ronald#637 · Ryan#99 · Raymond#394 · Roger#832 · Ralph#1046 · Roy#525
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Reginal? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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