Wray
Masculine · “A nook”
Wray is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 859 boys against 23 girls since 1880.
Wray begins with a silent letter, and it belongs to a small closed set of English words that all start the same way — a w that stopped being pronounced around the time Shakespeare was writing and has never been removed.
How old is the name Wray?
Wray first appears in US birth records in 1906 — 119 years ago. The typical Wray alive today was born around 1941, making them about 84 years old. About 300 people named Wray are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Wray most popular?
Wray peaked in 1906, reaching #1253 nationally. See the whole 1906 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Vrá to Wray
The story of Wray
Write, wrist, wrong, wrap, wreath, wren, wrinkle and this name all carry a w that nobody says. English pronounced it once: the cluster was a real sound, made with rounded lips, and it survived into the early modern period before collapsing into a plain r over a century or so. The spelling stayed because English spelling had already been fixed in print by then, so the language is still carrying a letter that stopped doing anything four hundred years ago. There is a rough pattern in what survives: several of the wr words have to do with twisting or bending, which may be a fossil of an older sense, and nobody has proved it.
Meaning
A nook, a corner of land
The surname comes from a Norse word for a nook or a secluded corner, which entered the north of England with the Viking settlements and named farms and hamlets there. The reading is not disputed.
How the name formed
- Vrá
- Wray
Pronouncing Wray
RAY
One syllable. The w is silent, exactly as it is in write and wrong.
Nicknames for Wray
Limited
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
- 1906
- Most boys named
- 192728 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1253reached in 1906
- Change vs 1987
- −28.6%5 in 1989, 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.
Wrays among us
people named Wray 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
Wray 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, distinctive on paper and completely ordinary in the mouth.
- The meaning is concrete and can be pointed at on a map.
- It works for either child.
- It will be written as Ray by anybody working from the sound.
- The spelling is recorded for a few girls, but nearly every child with it is a boy.
- The silent letter invites a question every time the name is given.
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Wray
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Wrays are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Wray are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Wray in 2025?
- Wray is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Wray with classmates?
- Wray will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More W names
The most-given names starting with W, all years combined.
William#9 · Walter#251 · Willie#1315 · Wayne#652 · Wesley#52 · Wyatt#38 · Warren#240 · Wallace#960
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Wray? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Wray and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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