Renee
Masculine · “reborn”
Renee is given to girls far more often — 185,896 girls against 1,617 boys since 1880. See Renee as a girl name
Renee began as a word about starting over. Early Christians took the Latin renatus — reborn — as a name at baptism, marking the day rather than the birth, and French turned it into René for men and Renée for women. American spelling dropped both accents on arrival, and with them the only thing that ever distinguished the two.
How old is the name Renee?
Renee first appears in US birth records in 1935 — 90 years ago. The typical Renee alive today was born around 1975, making them about 50 years old. About 1,400 people named Renee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Renee most popular?
Renee peaked in 1967, reaching #1231 nationally. Today it ranks #12008, 10,777 places below that high. See the whole 1967 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From renatus to Renee
The story of Renee
Renatus was in use across the late Roman world and stayed in France as René, where it was carried by kings of Naples and by the philosopher who wrote that he thought and therefore was. The feminine Renée is built by the standard French move of adding a silent e — silent, but it changes the spelling and, in French, absolutely nothing else. American English cannot hold the accents, so Renee arrives flat, and the result is a name that looks like one thing and covers two: French men have always been René, and a small number of American boys carry this spelling for exactly that reason.
Meaning
reborn
From the Latin renatus, the past participle of renasci, to be born again. It was chosen by converts and given at baptism in the early church, so it referred to a specific event rather than to a quality. The word is the same one behind renaissance.
How the name formed
- renatus
- Renatus
- Renée
- Renee
Related forms: Renée · Renata · Renata · Renata · Renáta · Renata
Pronouncing Renee
ruh-NAY
Two syllables with the stress at the back, following the French. Americans also say REN-ay with the weight in front, particularly in the Midwest and the South, and both are entirely established. The accents that French uses do not change the sound at all — they only mark the vowel qualities that French spelling requires.
Nicknames for Renee
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
- 1935
- Most boys named
- 197043 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1231reached in 1967
- Change vs 2021
- −16.7%5 in 2025, 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.
Renee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Renée in French — spelling variant
- Renata in Italian — same name
- Renata in Spanish — same name
- Renata in Latin — same name
- Renáta in Czech — same name
- Renata in Polish — same name
Renees among us
people named Renee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 341,615 born in 2025 was named Renee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Renee
- #12008
- Renee on the 2025 chart
- #727
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Renee went to 5 boys in 2025, but Rene is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 202, which makes it the 727th most-given boys’ name of the year — 11,281 places above the chart.
- Rene197
- Renee5
About 1 boy in 8,456 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 341,615 for Renee 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 Jearld test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Renee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jearld climbed just as high around 1941, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jearld's path sketches the road Renee is walking now.
Renee 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
Renee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Renee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is one word long, entirely positive, and unusually easy to explain.
- Everyone in America can say it and spell it, which a French name has no business managing.
- It has short forms in three registers — plain, affectionate and old-fashioned.
- It works for a child of either sex, and in French it always has: René is the men's form of exactly this name.
- Two pronunciations are both standard, and a woman will answer to both all her life without either being wrong.
- It belongs strongly to one American generation, and adults will place a Renee's age by the name before they meet her.
- The accents belong on it in French and will never survive an American form.
- Nearly every child given this spelling now is a girl, so a boy named Renee will meet the assumption constantly, even though the French original is his.
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What they receive
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Renee
Masculine · #12008 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Renees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Renee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Renee?
- Renee is one of 2 recorded spellings. Rene is the more common one — 197 births in 2025 against 5 for Renee.
- How popular is the name Renee in 2025?
- Renee ranks #12008 among US boy names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Renee?
- About 1 in every 341,615 US boys born in 2025 was named Renee — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Renee with classmates?
- Renee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Renee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Garfield#12008 · Chas#12008 · Lew#12008 · Barney#12008 · Dewitt#12008 · Granville#12008 · Cicero#12008 · Willam#12008
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Renee? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Renee and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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