Reva
Feminine · “rain”
Reva is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 16,048 girls against 11 boys since 1880.
Reva has two homes — Hebrew, where it is a Yiddish name of long standing, and Sanskrit, where Reva is another name for the river Narmada, one of India's seven sacred rivers.
How old is the name Reva?
Reva first appears in US birth records in 1883 — 142 years ago. The typical Reva alive today was born around 1938, making them about 87 years old. About 7,300 people named Reva are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Reva most popular?
Reva peaked in 1921, reaching #351 nationally. Today it ranks #1981, 1,630 places below that high. See the whole 1921 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Rivka to Reva
The story of Reva
Reva was used in Ashkenazi Jewish communities as a form of Rivka, and Jewish emigration brought it to America in the late nineteenth century. It also appears independently as a short American name alongside Neva, Eva and Vera. Reva peaked in American records around 1918. In India it remains a current name from the Sanskrit.
Meaningscholars disagree
rain; the swift one
Two unrelated routes. The Yiddish Reva or Rivka is a form of Rebecca, whose Hebrew origin is itself unrecovered. The Sanskrit Reva names the river Narmada and is read as 'the swift one' or 'the leaping one'. Both are genuine names and neither derives from the other.
How the name formed
- Rivka
- Reva
Related forms: רבֿקה · Revā · Rheva
Pronouncing Reva
REE-vuh
Two syllables, stress on the first. Sanskrit says RAY-vah with a fuller first vowel.
Nicknames for Reva
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
- 1883
- Most girls named
- 1924340 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #351reached in 1921
- Change vs 2022
- +51.6%97 in 2025, from 64
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.
Reva in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- רבֿקה in Yiddish — transliteration
- Revā in Sanskrit — same name
- Rheva in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New Jersey.
Revas among us
people named Reva are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 16,570 born in 2025 was named Reva
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Reva
- #1981
- Reva on the 2025 chart
- #804
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Reva went to 97 girls in 2025, but Reeva is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 156, which makes it the 804th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,177 places above the chart.
- Reva97
- Reeva59
About 1 girl in 10,303 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 16,570 for Reva 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 Lauretta test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Reva's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Lauretta climbed just as high around 1904, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Lauretta's path sketches the road Reva is walking now.
Reva is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Reva is headed
Reva should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind. Its history is short or jumpy, though, so read this as a sketch rather than a promise.
Low confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Reva beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Reva in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Two genuine and entirely independent traditions can claim it.
- The Narmada is one of the great sacred rivers of India, which is real weight.
- Four letters, two syllables, and never misheard.
- The two origins are unrelated and neither is dominant.
- Neva and Eva are close enough to cause confusion.
- It is period-coded to the early twentieth century in American records.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Reva
Feminine · #1981 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Revas are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 7,300 people named Reva are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Reva?
- Reva is the most-used spelling in US records — 97 of the 156 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Reeva.
- How popular is the name Reva in 2025?
- Reva ranks #1981 among US girl names in 2025, with 97 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Reva?
- About 1 in every 16,570 US girls born in 2025 was named Reva — 97 in all.
- Will my child share the name Reva with classmates?
- Reva will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Reva
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Melinda#1981 · Shanaya#1981 · Elana#1981 · Elisheva#1981 · Charity#1981 · Janyla#1981 · Sequoia#1981 · Theia#1981
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Reva? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Reva and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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