Rhys
Masculine · “ardor”
Rhys is given to both — 14,334 boys and 887 girls since 1880. See Rhys as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Rhys is the Welsh original behind a whole family of names Americans already know — Reese, Reece, Rees — and it kept the spelling the others gave up. One syllable, ending on a clean hiss, it was borne by the Lord Rhys, the twelfth-century ruler of Deheubarth in south-west Wales, and it never left the country's naming stock in the eight centuries since.
How old is the name Rhys?
Rhys first appears in US birth records in 1929 — 96 years ago. The typical Rhys is a kid of about 10 — this name's wave is very recent. About 14,000 people named Rhys are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rhys most popular?
Rhys peaked in 2024, reaching #352 nationally. Today it ranks #410, 58 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Rhys appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Ris to Rhys
The story of Rhys
Rhys comes from Old Welsh Ris and belongs to the oldest layer of Welsh personal names, the kind recorded in medieval genealogies and princely charters. Its most famous medieval bearer was Rhys ap Gruffydd, the Lord Rhys, who ruled Deheubarth in the twelfth century and held the earliest recorded eisteddfod at Cardigan. When Welsh families took fixed surnames under English administration, ap Rhys — son of Rhys — collapsed into Price and Preece, while the given name itself was respelled Rees, Reece and Reese for English-speaking clerks. All of those are the same name; Rhys is simply the form that stayed Welsh. It traveled with Welsh emigration to the coalfields of Pennsylvania and, later, to Australia and New Zealand.
Meaning
ardor, enthusiasm
The Old Welsh root is usually glossed as ardor or zeal; older reference books sometimes render it more loosely as "fiery" or "rashness", but they are describing the same word.
How the name formed
- Ris
- Rhys
- Rees
- Reece
- Reese
Related forms: Rhys · Reece · Rees · Reese · Price · Preece
Pronouncing Rhys
REESS
Rhymes with peace, not with rice or rise. In Welsh the opening rh is a breathy, voiceless r, but English speakers say it as a plain r and no one in Wales minds.
Nicknames for Rhys
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
- 1929
- Most boys named
- 2023931 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #352reached in 2024
- Change vs 2023
- −16.4%778 in 2025, from 931
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.
Rhys in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Rhys in Welsh — same name
- Reece in English — spelling variant
- Rees in English — spelling variant
- Reese in English — spelling variant
- Price in English (surname) — related form
- Preece in English (surname) — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Pennsylvania, Texas.
Rhyss among us
people named Rhys are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 2,195 born in 2025 was named Rhys
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Guillermo test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rhys's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Guillermo climbed just as high around 1996, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Guillermo's path sketches the road Rhys is walking now.
Rhys 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
Where Rhys is headed
Rhys looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 17% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
High 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.
Rhys beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rhys in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- One syllable, one clear sound — once someone has heard it, they can say it.
- The pronunciation is already familiar in the US through the Reese and Reece spellings, so the sound needs no explaining, only the letters.
- Documented in Wales since the early medieval period and continuously in use there ever since.
- Recognized across Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand as well as the US.
- The spelling gets misread on sight — "Rise" and "Riss" are the usual guesses — so he will spell it aloud fairly often. Most people only need telling once.
- Heard rather than seen, it can be taken for Reese, which in the US is given largely to girls. The Rhys spelling itself is used almost entirely for boys.
- There is essentially no short form. A one-syllable name gives nicknames nowhere to go, which suits some families and frustrates others.
- It reads as distinctly Welsh, which is a pleasure if there is Welsh in the family and a small, repeated conversation if there is not.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Rhys to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Rhys
Masculine · #410 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rhyss are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 14,000 people named Rhys are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Rhys in 2025?
- Rhys ranks #410 among US boy names in 2025, with 778 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rhys?
- About 1 in every 2,195 US boys born in 2025 was named Rhys — 778 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rhys with classmates?
- Rhys will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rhys
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Koda#410 · Eduardo#410 · Hector#409 · Remy#408 · Hank#413 · Augustus#407 · Leandro#406 · Cayden#414
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rhys? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Rhys and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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