Rei
Feminine · “Depends on the Japanese characters”
Rei is given to both — 550 girls and 478 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Rei arrives in American records at the same moment as Rey and for overlapping reasons, but it has a genuine second life of its own: in Japanese it is an ordinary given name written with characters meaning grace, beauty, or a bell, and it has been used for a very long time.
How old is the name Rei?
Rei first appears in US birth records in 1974 — 51 years ago. The typical Rei is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Rei are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rei most popular?
Rei peaked in 2020, reaching #3221 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 2,017 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Rei
Two things converge on three letters here. Japanese Rei is old and ordinary, one of the short single-element given names that Japanese has always had, and it became familiar to a wide non-Japanese audience through animation — Rei Ayanami of Neon Genesis Evangelion, from 1995, and Sailor Mars, whose given name is Rei, from 1992. That built an American familiarity with the sound long before anything else did. Then The Force Awakens arrived in 2015 with a character called Rey, and the whole sound family — Rey, Rei, Ray, Rae — rose together, peaking in 2020. Rei's own peak is that year. Which of the two currents produced any particular child cannot be read from the record, and the honest answer names both.
Meaningscholars disagree
Depends on the Japanese characters
Japanese Rei is written with many kanji and the meaning belongs to the writing: 玲, the sound of jade; 礼, courtesy or ritual propriety; 麗, beautiful; 零, zero; 鈴, a bell. A romanised Rei carries none of this. Separately the spelling serves as a variant of Spanish Rey, king, and of the Star Wars character's name, which the films left without an explanation.
Pronouncing Rei
RAY
One syllable, rhyming with day, in Japanese and in English alike. The Japanese ei is a long e that English hears as a long a, and the result is close enough that nobody is corrected.
Nicknames for Rei
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
- 1974
- Most girls named
- 202048 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3221reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- −11.1%24 in 2025, from 27
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.
Rei in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- れい in Japanese — transliteration
- 玲 in Japanese — transliteration
- Rey in Spanish — spelling variant
- Rei in Portuguese — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Pennsylvania.
Reis among us
people named Rei are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Rei
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Rei
- #5238
- Rei on the 2025 chart
- #912
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Rei went to 24 girls in 2025, but Rey is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 48, which makes it the 912th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,326 places above the chart.
- Rei24
- Rey24
About 1 girl in 33,485 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 66,969 for Rei itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Kelia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rei's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kelia climbed just as high around 1993, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kelia's path sketches the road Rei is walking now.
Rei 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
Rei beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rei in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Three letters and one syllable, about as short as a name can be.
- It is a genuine and ordinary Japanese name, not an approximation.
- Everyone can say it correctly on first sight.
- Rei, Rey, Ray and Rae are four spellings of one sound.
- The Japanese meaning depends on characters the romanised spelling cannot carry.
- It is dated tightly to the years around 2020 in American use.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Rei
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Reis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Rei are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Rei?
- Rei is the most-used spelling in US records — 24 of the 48 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Rey.
- How popular is the name Rei in 2025?
- Rei ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rei?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Rei — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rei with classmates?
- Rei will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rei
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irena#5238 · Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rei? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rei and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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