Rene
Feminine · “reborn”
Rene is given to both — 21,839 girls and 50,940 boys since 1880. See Rene as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Rene is reborn. The Latin renatus was a Christian baptismal name — born again in the water — and French kept it for both sexes, with an accent that English usually drops.
How old is the name Rene?
Rene first appears in US birth records in 1885 — 140 years ago. The typical Rene alive today was born around 1964, making them about 61 years old. About 18,500 people named Rene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rene most popular?
Rene peaked in 1962, reaching #306 nationally. Today it ranks #7885, 7,579 places below that high. See the whole 1962 chart.
Rene appears on this list:
Where it comes from
From renatus to Rene
The story of Rene
Renatus was an early Christian name, and French made René and Renée. Both reached America through French and French-Canadian families, and the accents were routinely dropped in American records — which is why Rene appears for both sexes. Feminine Rene peaked in the mid-1960s, alongside the accented Renee which was much commoner.
Meaning
reborn
From the Latin renatus, 'reborn', from re- and nasci, 'to be born'. It was an early Christian name referring to baptismal rebirth. French Renée is the feminine and René the masculine; English generally writes both without the accents, which loses the distinction.
How the name formed
- renatus
- René
- Rene
Related forms: Renée · Renata · Renata · Renee
Pronouncing Rene
ruh-NAY
Two syllables, stress on the second. French says the masculine and feminine identically; only the spelling differs there.
Nicknames for Rene
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
- 1885
- Most girls named
- 1962916 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #306reached in 1962
- Change vs 2022
- −13.3%13 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.
Rene in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Renée in French — same name
- Renata in Italian — related form
- Renata in Spanish — related form
- Renee in English — spelling variant
Renes among us
people named Rene are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 123,636 born in 2025 was named Rene
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Rene
- #7885
- Rene on the 2025 chart
- #731
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Rene went to 13 girls in 2025, but Renee is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 231, which makes it the 731st most-given girls’ name of the year — 7,154 places above the chart.
- Renee218
- Rene13
About 1 girl in 6,958 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 123,636 for Rene 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 Rosella test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rene's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rosella climbed just as high around 1916, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rosella's path sketches the road Rene is walking now.
Rene 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
Rene beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rene in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is transparent and carries a genuinely specific religious sense.
- Renata is a living cousin in Italian, Spanish and Polish.
- The end stress gives it a distinct rhythm against a front-stressed surname.
- Without the accents the name does not signal sex, and in French it reads as masculine.
- Renee is the commoner American spelling.
- It is closely dated to the middle of the twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Rene
Feminine · #7885 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Renes are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 18,500 people named Rene are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Rene?
- Rene is one of 2 recorded spellings. Renee is the more common one — 218 births in 2025 against 13 for Rene.
- How popular is the name Rene in 2025?
- Rene ranks #7885 among US girl names in 2025, with 13 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rene?
- About 1 in every 123,636 US girls born in 2025 was named Rene — 13 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rene with classmates?
- Rene will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rene
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ola#7885 · Loula#7885 · Consuelo#7885 · Santa#7885 · Florentina#7885 · Marty#7885 · Jaye#7885 · Dollie#7885
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rene? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rene and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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