Rilee
Feminine · “valiant' from the Irish”
Rilee is given to both — 3,324 girls and 418 boys since 1880. See other names given to both
Rilee is one spelling of a name whose origin is genuinely disputed between Ireland and England. Riley may be an anglicized Irish surname about valor, or an English place name about rye. Both are real, both are common, and the American given name descends from a mixture of the two. Rilee peaks in 2010.
How old is the name Rilee?
Rilee first appears in US birth records in 1985 — 40 years ago. The typical Rilee alive today was born around 2009, making them about 16 years old. About 3,300 people named Rilee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Rilee most popular?
Rilee peaked in 2010, reaching #1348 nationally. Today it ranks #5917, 4,569 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From O Raghallaigh to Rilee
The story of Rilee
The O'Reillys were lords of East Breifne in what is now County Cavan, and their name is one of the most common in Ireland. The Lancashire Rileys are unconnected. Both anglicized into similar spellings and both crossed to America in the nineteenth century, which means an American Riley may descend from either and usually cannot tell. Its use as a given name grew from the 1970s on boys and from the 1990s on girls; by 2010 the girls' use was the larger. Rilee belongs to the respelling wave, and it is the version that drops the y for a second e — the same device as Kaylee and Bailee.
Meaningscholars disagree
'valiant' from the Irish; or 'rye clearing' from the English
The Irish route runs through O Raghallaigh, a Cavan family name whose root is usually connected to raghall, a word associated with valor or with sociability — the derivation is not fully secure. The English route runs through the place name Ryley or Riley in Lancashire, from Old English ryge, 'rye', and leah, a clearing: a field where rye was grown. Both surnames exist, both emigrated to America in numbers, and the given name draws on both.
How the name formed
- O Raghallaigh
- Riley
- Rilee
Related forms: Riley · O Raghallaigh · Ryleigh
Pronouncing Rilee
RY-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first, with the long i of ride. Identical to Riley and Ryleigh; the spellings differ only on paper.
Nicknames for Rilee
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
- 1985
- Most girls named
- 2008180 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1348reached in 2010
- Change vs 2024
- −42.9%20 in 2025, from 35
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.
Rilee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Riley in English — spelling variant
- O Raghallaigh in Irish — related form
- Ryleigh in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Michigan.
Rilees among us
people named Rilee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 80,363 born in 2025 was named Rilee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Rilee
- #5917
- Rilee on the 2025 chart
- #145
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Rilee went to 20 girls in 2025, but Rylee is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 2,138, which makes it the 145th most-given girls’ name of the year — 5,772 places above the chart.
- Rylee2,118
- Rilee20
About 1 girl in 752 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 80,363 for Rilee 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 Tanna test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Rilee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tanna climbed just as high around 1979, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tanna's path sketches the road Rilee is walking now.
Rilee 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
Rilee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Rilee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The sound is thoroughly familiar and nobody has to be taught it.
- It works on either sex, with a genuine history on both.
- Riles and Ri are both usable short forms.
- At least five spellings share the sound and hers will rarely be guessed.
- The Irish and English derivations are both live, so the meaning needs a qualifier.
- Riley is far the more common spelling and hers will be written that way.
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What they receive
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Rilee
Feminine · #5917 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Rilees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,300 people named Rilee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Rilee?
- Rilee is one of 2 recorded spellings. Rylee is the more common one — 2,118 births in 2025 against 20 for Rilee.
- How popular is the name Rilee in 2025?
- Rilee ranks #5917 among US girl names in 2025, with 20 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Rilee?
- About 1 in every 80,363 US girls born in 2025 was named Rilee — 20 in all.
- Will my child share the name Rilee with classmates?
- Rilee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Rilee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elda#5917 · Saloma#5917 · Fawn#5917 · Sarafina#5917 · Jaymie#5917 · Jania#5917 · Kimberlynn#5917 · Patsy#5917
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Rilee? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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