Reese
A name of Welsh origin meaning "ardor" or "enthusiasm".
Name Census estimates that about 59,798 living Americans carry the first name Reese. It sits at #190 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 69.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Reese today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Reese births was 2007 (2,950 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Reese. 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 Reese with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Reese started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Reese is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 16 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
60K
~ 1 in 5,732 Americans
Peak year
2007
2,950 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#190
Tracked since 1880
Census
Reese in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 48,827 people with the first name Reese, which placed it at #919 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
#919
National first-name rank
People counted
49K
48,827 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
16.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
83.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Reese
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reese is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.6%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Reese 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 Reese at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White83.7% · 40,845
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 2,728
- Two or more races5.2% · 2,528
- Black or African American3.5% · 1,708
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 707
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 311
Gender
Gender distribution for Reese
Reese is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 62,268 total registrations, 19,129 (30.7%) were male and 43,139 (69.3%) were female.
Reese as a male name
- Ranked #620 in 2024
- 455 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2003 (709 births)
Reese as a female name
- Ranked #190 in 2024
- 1,589 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (2,459 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Reese on both sides of the split. Of the 48,829 people counted with this name, 14,904 were male (30.5%) and 33,925 were female (69.5%).
Popularity
Reese: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Reese 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 24,290 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Reese remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Reese 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 Reese during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Reeses live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Reese, while Alaska, Wyoming, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,111 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Reese
The name Reese has its origins in the Welsh language and culture. It emerged as a surname derived from the Welsh word "Rhys," which means "ardor" or "enthusiasm." The name gained popularity as a given name in the 19th century, particularly in Wales and parts of England.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Reese can be found in the Welsh manuscript "The Black Book of Carmarthen," dating back to the 13th century. This medieval manuscript contains poems and prose attributed to various Welsh poets and writers, including references to individuals bearing the name Rhys.
In the 14th century, a notable figure named Rhys ap Gruffydd was a Welsh prince and the last sovereign ruler of the Kingdom of Deheubarth in South Wales. He played a significant role in the conflicts between the Welsh and the English during that time period.
During the Renaissance era, a Welsh scholar and mathematician named Rhys Goch Eryri (1559-1633) gained recognition for his contributions to the field of mathematics and his involvement in the translation of the Bible into Welsh.
In the 19th century, the name Reese gained further popularity, and several notable individuals bore this name. One such person was Reese Howell (1879-1954), a Welsh minister and missionary who played a significant role in the revival movements in Wales during the early 20th century.
Another prominent figure was Reese Witherspoon (born 1976), an American actress and producer who has won several awards, including an Academy Award for Best Actress. Her given name, Reese, is a nod to her Welsh heritage.
Other historical figures with the name Reese include Reese Gwillim (1833-1898), a Welsh industrialist and philanthropist; Reese Prosser (1804-1876), a Welsh explorer and author; and Reese Williams (1881-1948), a Welsh poet and writer.
While the name Reese has its roots in Welsh culture, it has gained popularity worldwide, particularly in English-speaking countries, and is often chosen for its unique and distinct sound.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Reese
People
Reese + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Reese 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
Reese: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Reese?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 59,798 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Reese 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 5,732 US residents.
Is Reese a common name?
We classify Reese as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 62,268 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Reese most popular?
The single biggest year for Reese was 2007, when 2,950 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Reese is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Reese in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 48,827 people with the name Reese, or 16.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #919 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 Reese 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 Reese?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Reese on both sides of the split. Of the 48,829 people counted with this name, 14,904 were male (30.5%) and 33,925 were female (69.5%). 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 Reese?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reese is White at 83.7%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (5.6%) and Two or More Races (5.2%). 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 Reese most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Reese in the 2020 Census, accounting for 83.7% (40,845 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 Reese in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Reese a female name?
Yes, 69.3% of people registered as Reese in the SSA data are female. 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 Reese still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Reese 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 Reese 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 share the name Reese?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.