Reed
A masculine name with Germanic origins meaning "red" or "ruddy complexion".
Name Census estimates that about 31,143 living Americans carry the first name Reed. It sits at #421 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly male name (97.5% of registrations). The average person named Reed today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Reed births was 2014 (1,122 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Reed. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Reed with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Reed is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 907 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
31K
~ 1 in 11,006 Americans
Peak year
2014
1,122 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#421
Tracked since 1881
Census
Reed in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 27,778 people with the first name Reed, which placed it at #1,313 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#1,313
National first-name rank
People counted
28K
27,778 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
9.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
89.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Reed
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reed is White at 89.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.0%) and Hispanic (3.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Reed described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Reed at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White89.6% · 24,882
- Two or more races4.0% · 1,112
- Hispanic or Latino3.0% · 846
- Black or African American1.8% · 490
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 322
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 126
Gender
Gender distribution for Reed
Reed leans heavily male at 97.5% of total registrations, but 907 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Reed as a male name
- Ranked #421 in 2024
- 744 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (1,096 births)
Reed as a female name
- Ranked #5,736 in 2024
- 22 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1996 (51 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Reed leans strongly male. 26,810 people counted with this name were male (96.5%), compared with 965 female bearers (3.5%).
Popularity
Reed: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Reed from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 9,304 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Reed remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Reed by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Reed during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Reeds live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. California, Texas, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Reed, while Vermont, Delaware, Wyoming recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 590 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Reed
The given name Reed has its origins in Old English, derived from the word "reed," which refers to the tall, slender grass-like plant that grows in wetlands and marshes. This name likely emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, between the 5th and 11th centuries.
The name Reed is thought to have been initially used as a descriptive surname or byname, referring to someone who lived near a reed bed or worked with reeds in some capacity, such as a basket weaver or thatcher. Over time, it transitioned from a surname to a given name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Reed can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of land and property commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. It mentions a landowner named "Radulfus Reed" in Nottinghamshire.
In the 13th century, a notable bearer of the name was Reed the Miller, a wealthy landowner and mill operator from Bedfordshire, England. He was mentioned in several legal documents and records from that era.
During the Renaissance period, a prominent figure named Reed Painter (c. 1548-1619) was an English painter known for his portraits of prominent figures, including Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh.
In the 18th century, Reed Prentice (1723-1809) was a respected American Revolutionary War soldier and politician from Massachusetts. He served as a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and the Massachusetts State Legislature.
Another historical figure named Reed was Reed Smoot (1862-1941), an American businessman and politician from Utah. He served as a United States Senator from 1903 to 1933 and was instrumental in the passage of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.
In the literary world, Reed Whittemore (1919-2012) was an American poet, critic, and academic who published numerous collections of poetry and received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1964 for his work "Seed Leaves."
These examples illustrate the rich history and diverse backgrounds of individuals who have borne the given name Reed throughout various periods and across different cultures.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Reed
People
Reed + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Reed as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Reed: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Reed?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 31,143 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Reed going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 11,006 US residents.
Is Reed a common name?
We classify Reed as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 36,191 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Reed most popular?
The single biggest year for Reed was 2014, when 1,122 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Reed is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Reed in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 27,778 people with the name Reed, or 9.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,313 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Reed in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Reed?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Reed leans strongly male. 26,810 people counted with this name were male (96.5%), compared with 965 female bearers (3.5%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Reed?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reed is White at 89.6%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (4.0%) and Hispanic (3.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Reed most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Reed in the 2020 Census, accounting for 89.6% (24,882 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Reed in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Reed a male name?
Yes, 97.5% of people registered as Reed in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Reed still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Reed in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Reed can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Reed as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.