Reynold
Masculine · “Germanic ragin and wald”
The French word for a fox is a character's name. Goupil was the ordinary word until the beast epic about Renart the fox became so popular that the hero's name replaced it, and modern French renard is that character.
How old is the name Reynold?
Reynold first appears in US birth records in 1893 — 132 years ago. The typical Reynold alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 2,100 people named Reynold are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Reynold most popular?
Reynold peaked in 1903, reaching #576 nationally. Today it ranks #9714, 9,138 places below that high. See the whole 1903 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Raginwald to Reynold
The story of Reynold
The Roman de Renart is a cycle of French verse tales from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries about a trickster fox who outwits a wolf, a bear, a cat and a lion king. Renart is the French form of the Germanic name Reginhard, counsel-hardy, and the poems were so widely read that the character's name displaced the ordinary noun: goupil, from Latin vulpecula, went out of use and renard became the French word for the animal. That is a rare event. A fictional character's name has replaced a common noun in a major language perhaps a handful of times, and the fox is the clearest case. English kept its own word, fox, but borrowed the character as Reynard, and the related name Reynold belongs to the same Germanic family of ragin compounds.
Meaning
Germanic ragin and wald, counsel and rule
Reynold is the English form of Germanic Raginwald, joining ragin, counsel or the divine powers, to wald, rule. The Norman form Reinald gave English Reynold and Reginald, and the Latinized Reginaldus reinforced the second. It is the same compound that gives Norse Rognvaldr and hence Ronald. The American peak is 1903.
How the name formed
- Raginwald
- Reinald
- Reynold
Related forms: Reginald · Renaud · Rinaldo
Pronouncing Reynold
REN-uld
Two syllables, stress on the first. Reynold and Reynolds are the given name and the surname formed from it. Reginald is three syllables.
Nicknames for Reynold
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
- 1893
- Most boys named
- 195091 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #576reached in 1903
- Change vs 2022
- +16.7%7 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.
Reynold in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Reginald in English — same name
- Renaud in French — same name
- Rinaldo in Italian — same name
Reynolds among us
people named Reynold are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 244,011 born in 2025 was named Reynold
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Reynold 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
Reynold beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Reynold in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reggie is available as an established short form.
- Both Germanic elements have clear meanings.
- Reginald is available as the fuller form.
- Reginald and Ronald are both commoner.
- The spelling suggests a long first vowel that it does not have.
- The 1903 peak places it over a century ago.
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Reynold
Masculine · #9714 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Reynolds are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,100 people named Reynold are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Reynold in 2025?
- Reynold ranks #9714 among US boy names in 2025, with 7 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Reynold?
- About 1 in every 244,011 US boys born in 2025 was named Reynold — 7 in all.
- Will my child share the name Reynold with classmates?
- Reynold will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Reynold
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Vern#9714 · Abrahm#9714 · Sid#9714 · Hartwell#9714 · Kwan#9714 · Adrean#9714 · Chancey#9714 · Bob#9714
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Reynold? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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