Renard
Masculine · “strong counsel”
Renard is the French spelling and Reynard the English one, and the difference is four hundred years of translation. English met the fox stories in French, wrote the hero's name with a y as it wrote most French names, and kept that spelling long after France had settled on its own.
How old is the name Renard?
Renard first appears in US birth records in 1910 — 115 years ago. The typical Renard alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 2,300 people named Renard are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Renard most popular?
Renard peaked in 1965, reaching #948 nationally. See the whole 1965 chart.
Where it comes from
From Reginhard to Renard
The story of Renard
The fox cycle was not written by anybody in particular. It accumulated over two centuries in the hands of dozens of poets, in French, Dutch, German and Latin, each adding episodes and none of them signing much — which makes it one of the great anonymous works of European literature and impossible to date properly. Different branches survive in different languages and they contradict each other cheerfully. That collective authorship is part of why the character escaped into ordinary speech: nobody owned him, so everybody used him, and the French word for a fox changed as a result.
Meaning
strong counsel
The Germanic compound joins a word for counsel to one meaning hardy. It is an ordinary Frankish name, and its association with foxes is an accident of literary history.
How the name formed
- Reginhard
- Renard
Related forms: Renard · Reynard · Reinhard · Reinaert
Pronouncing Renard
ruh-NARD
Two syllables with the weight at the back. French drops the final consonant, ruh-NAR, which English does not.
Nicknames for Renard
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
- 1910
- Most boys named
- 196560 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #948reached in 1965
- Change vs 2021
- +33.3%8 in 2024, from 6
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.
Renard in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Renard in French — same name
- Reynard in English — spelling variant
- Reinhard in German — same name
- Reinaert in Dutch — same name
Renards among us
people named Renard 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
Renard 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 a standing name in French, German and Dutch.
- Both syllables are readable in English and the name is said correctly at sight.
- The literature behind it is enormous and easy to point a child at.
- In French the word is the ordinary term for a fox, which a French speaker will mention.
- Reynard and Raynard are both in the record and will be written instead.
- It reads as a French name in America and will prompt questions about pronunciation.
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Renard
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Renards are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,300 people named Renard are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Renard in 2025?
- Renard is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Renard with classmates?
- Renard 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 Renard? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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