Rey
- Pronunciation
- [Rey]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- Regal
- Origin
- French
About the Name Rey
Rey means "king" or "regal," drawn from the Spanish word for a monarch and ultimately from the Latin rex. Compact and commanding, it packs a sense of nobility into a single bright syllable, and its crown-bright meaning gives it a confident, dignified character that belies its brevity. Few names manage to say so much in so little space, which is a large part of its modern appeal.
As a given name, Rey has a clean, modern sound and a strong cross-cultural appeal, fitting comfortably in Spanish-speaking households and far beyond them. Its short, punchy form aligns neatly with the contemporary taste for streamlined, single-syllable names, while its royal meaning lends real weight and substance. It works beautifully on its own or as a vivid middle name. Recorded variants include Reyes, a related Spanish form that carries the same regal heritage and dignity.
Rey first entered the US Social Security top-1000 for boys in 2000 and climbed to its peak in 2018 at rank #753. It has shown remarkable longevity, remaining in the rankings through 2024, when it sat at #821 with 303 births, after ranking #792 in 2023. Across its long run it accounts for 6,042 recorded births, marking it as an enduring and increasingly visible choice in American naming. It continues to appeal to parents who want a short, strong name with real meaning behind it.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Rey
US Popularity History (2000–2025)
Annual US births named Rey by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2021 with 328 boys named Rey (boy rank #764 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #908 for boys (262 US births). That's 144 places below its 2021 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Rey Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Rey the strongest states are California, Texas, Arizona.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | #431 | 740 |
| 2 | Texas | #476 | 614 |
| 3 | Arizona | #504 | 129 |
| 4 | Nevada | #550 | 26 |
| 5 | Washington | #758 | 34 |
| 6 | Colorado | #766 | 45 |
| 7 | Florida | #808 | 147 |
| 8 | North Carolina | #829 | 42 |
| 9 | Illinois | #902 | 77 |
| 10 | New Jersey | #936 | 19 |
Weakest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgia | #945 | 29 |
| 2 | New Jersey | #936 | 19 |
| 3 | Illinois | #902 | 77 |
| 4 | North Carolina | #829 | 42 |
| 5 | Florida | #808 | 147 |
| 6 | Colorado | #766 | 45 |
| 7 | Washington | #758 | 34 |
| 8 | Nevada | #550 | 26 |
| 9 | Arizona | #504 | 129 |
| 10 | Texas | #476 | 614 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Rey in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reyes | Kings. | Male | Spanish |
Looking for names like Rey?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Rey to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Rey against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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