Reynard
Masculine · “counsel and hardiness”
Reynard reached American certificates as a surname rather than as the famous animal, and the difference matters: families using it were honoring people, not characters. The Germanic compound underneath it is a good example of a naming system that assembled elements for pattern rather than for meaning.
How old is the name Reynard?
Reynard first appears in US birth records in 1915 — 110 years ago. The typical Reynard alive today was born around 1974, making them about 51 years old. About 600 people named Reynard are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Reynard most popular?
Reynard peaked in 1964, reaching #1900 nationally. See the whole 1964 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Raginhard to Reynard
The story of Reynard
Germanic names were built from a fixed stock of elements — counsel, wolf, army, peace, bright, hard, battle, noble — combined two at a time, and the striking thing about them is that the combinations frequently make no sense as phrases. Names meaning something like battle-peace or army-peace exist in quantity. Historians of naming worked out why: the elements were not chosen for what the compound said but to mark family membership. A son took one element from his father and one from his mother, or a whole line alliterated on a single letter, so a family could be read off a list of names the way a coat of arms can be read off a shield. Meaning came second to inheritance, which is why the same handful of words recombine endlessly and why translating one of these names as though it were a sentence usually produces nonsense.
Meaning
counsel and hardiness
The first element is the word for counsel or for the deciding powers, and the second means hard or brave. Both are standard pieces of the Germanic name stock, and the combination is one of dozens that reuse them. What the compound as a whole was meant to convey is a different question.
How the name formed
- Raginhard
- Renart
- Reynard
Related forms: Renard · Reinhard · Reinaert · Rainardo
Pronouncing Reynard
RAY-nard
Two syllables with the stress at the front in English. French puts it on the second and nasalises nothing, which is why the French form sounds like a different word.
Nicknames for Reynard
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
- 1915
- Most boys named
- 199217 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1900reached in 1964
- Change vs 2012
- −16.7%5 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.
Reynard in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Renard in French — same name
- Reinhard in German — same name
- Reinaert in Dutch — same name
- Rainardo in Italian — same name
Reynards among us
people named Reynard 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
Reynard 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
- The meaning is documented all the way back and has not changed.
- It is genuinely rare while being entirely readable at first sight.
- Rey detaches as a short form and works on its own.
- Readers who know the medieval beast poems will think of the fox first.
- Reynolds, Renard and Raynard will all be written for it.
- Front stress in English and back stress in French mean the name is said two ways.
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Reynard
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Reynards are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 600 people named Reynard are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Reynard in 2025?
- Reynard is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Reynard with classmates?
- Reynard 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 Reynard? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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