Torey
Feminine
Torey is given to both — 1,421 girls and 2,973 boys since 1880. See Torey as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Torey is one of five spellings of a short name that the registers hold for both sexes, and one of its possible sources is a word for a rocky hill. A tor is a granite outcrop on a moor, the word is probably Celtic rather than English, and it survives mainly in the west country and in the names of the hills themselves.
How old is the name Torey?
Torey first appears in US birth records in 1959 — 66 years ago. The typical Torey alive today was born around 1990, making them about 35 years old. About 1,400 people named Torey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Torey most popular?
Torey peaked in 1959, reaching #1052 nationally. See the whole 1959 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From A probably Celtic word for a rocky outcrop to Torey
The story of Torey
The tors are the exposed granite tops of Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor, weathered into stacked slabs that look built, and they gave English a word that has never spread far beyond the counties that have them. Its origin is debated: a Celtic word is the leading candidate, borrowed into Old English early, with a Latin one and an older pre-Celtic source also proposed. What is clear is that it is a regional word for a regional feature, and that the surnames and place names built on it are concentrated exactly where the rocks are. A first name derived from it therefore carries a very specific piece of geography, whether or not any family choosing it knew that.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Several possible sources with different meanings: a short form of Torrance or Salvatore, a place-name element about a hill, and the political word that is one letter away. Each gives a different answer and the spelling records none. The hill word itself is of uncertain origin, probably Celtic and possibly older, which does not help.
How the name formed
- A probably Celtic word for a rocky outcrop
- Place names and surnames built on it in the west country
- Also a short form of several unrelated longer names
- Torey as one of five American spellings
Pronouncing Torey
TOR-ee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Five spellings of this sound are in circulation and all are identical in speech; the -ey ending is among the less common of them.
Nicknames for Torey
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
- 1959
- Most girls named
- 1959103 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1052reached in 1959
- Change vs 2015
- −14.3%6 in 2016, from 7
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.
Toreys among us
people named Torey 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
Torey 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
- It is short, warm and impossible to mispronounce.
- It works on the register for either child, which the record confirms.
- It functions as a full name and as a short form at once.
- Five spellings compete and your child will be correcting four of them.
- In Britain the same sound names a political party.
- There is no established origin, and the candidates give different meanings.
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Torey
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Toreys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,400 people named Torey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Torey in 2025?
- Torey is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Torey with classmates?
- Torey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More T names
The most-given names starting with T, all years combined.
Teresa#908 · Theresa#1548 · Tiffany#878 · Tammy#3645 · Taylor#403 · Tina#2778 · Tracy#2153 · Thelma#4661
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Torey? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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