Rey
Feminine · “King”
Rey is given to both — 526 girls and 9,696 boys since 1880. See Rey as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Rey is the Spanish word for king, an old Spanish surname, and a short form of Reyna and Reynaldo. As a girl's name in American records it is none of those: it arrives after 2015, and its peak in 2020 follows the last of the three films it came from.
How old is the name Rey?
Rey first appears in US birth records in 2016 — 9 years ago. The typical Rey is a kid of about 5 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Rey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rey most popular?
Rey peaked in 2020, reaching #2135 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 3,103 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From rex to Rey
Our story of Rey
It is rare to be able to date a name to a month, and this one nearly can be. The Force Awakens opened in December 2015 with a scavenger called Rey at its center, and the American girls' name — essentially absent before then — appears in the records from 2016 and peaks in 2020, the year after The Rise of Skywalker. The Spanish rey has been available as a name element for centuries, in Reyna, Reynaldo, Reyes and the surname Rey, and Spanish-speaking families have used it. But those were not what moved the number. What moved it was three syllables of screen time and a character who was the first woman to carry a Star Wars trilogy — and a name so short that it fitted onto the front of a birth certificate without argument.
Meaning
King
Spanish rey descends from Latin rex, regis, king, and the reading is settled for the Spanish word and surname. Its use as a modern American girl's name comes through the Star Wars character rather than through the Spanish word, and the films deliberately left the character's name without a given etymology; some sources connect it to English ray, a beam of light, which the films never confirm.
How the name formed
- rex
- rey
- Rey
Related forms: Rey · Rex · Rei
Pronouncing Rey
RAY
One syllable, rhyming with day, in both Spanish and English. There is no ambiguity, though the spelling is regularly written as Ray.
Nicknames for Rey
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
- 2016
- Most girls named
- 202085 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #2135reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- +20.0%24 in 2025, from 20
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.
Rey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rey in Spanish — same name
- Rex in Latin — related form
- Rei in Portuguese — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, Illinois.
Reys among us
people named Rey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Rey
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Rey
- #5238
- Rey on the 2025 chart
- #912
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Rey went to 24 girls in 2025, but Rei 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 Rey 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 Katrinia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Katrinia climbed just as high around 1972, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Katrinia's path sketches the road Rey is walking now.
Rey 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
Rey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rey 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.
- Everyone can say it correctly on first sight.
- It works as a Spanish word, an English name and a screen character at once.
- The Spanish word means king, which sits oddly on a daughter for Spanish speakers.
- Ray is the commoner spelling and will be written instead.
- It is dated tightly to one film trilogy and one five-year window.
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What they receive
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Rey
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Reys 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 Rey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Rey?
- Rey is one of 2 recorded spellings. Rei is the more common one — 24 births in 2025 against 24 for Rey.
- How popular is the name Rey in 2025?
- Rey ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rey?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Rey — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rey with classmates?
- Rey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rey
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 Rey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rey and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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