Reeve
A masculine name derived from the Old English word for an official or overseer.
Name Census estimates that about 1,109 living Americans carry the first name Reeve. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 79.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Reeve today is around 16 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Reeve births was 2017 (68 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Reeve. 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.
Key insights
- • Reeve 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
1.1K
~ 1 in 309,066 Americans
Peak year
2017
68 babies that year
Average age
16
years old
2024 SSA rank
#3,432
Tracked since 1913
Gender
Gender distribution for Reeve
Reeve is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,144 total registrations, 911 (79.6%) were male and 233 (20.4%) were female.
Reeve as a male name
- Ranked #3,432 in 2024
- 34 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (50 births)
Reeve as a female name
- Ranked #10,876 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (23 births)
Popularity
Reeve: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Reeve from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 459 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Reeve remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Reeve 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 Reeve during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Reeves live
Origin
Meaning and history of Reeve
The name Reeve originated from the Old English word "gerefa," which means "guardian" or "steward." This name has a long history dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period in England, around the 5th to 11th centuries.
The word "gerefa" was used to refer to a high-ranking official responsible for managing the affairs of a town or manor, collecting taxes, and enforcing local laws. As such, the name Reeve carried a sense of authority and responsibility.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Reeve can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of land ownership and taxation conducted in England in 1086. The name appears in various spellings, such as "Reue," "Reve," and "Refe."
In medieval times, the name Reeve was associated with various historical figures. For example, Reeve the Rhymer, also known as Thomas the Rhymer, was a renowned 13th-century Scottish poet and prophet. Another notable figure was Walter Reeve, a 14th-century English landowner and soldier who fought in the Hundred Years' War.
During the Renaissance period, the name Reeve gained popularity among the nobility and gentry in England. One notable bearer of the name was Sir Edmund Reeve (1570-1641), an English politician and member of Parliament.
In the 19th century, the name Reeve became associated with the literary world. Legh Reeve (1809-1842) was an English poet and writer, while Henry Reeve (1813-1895) was a renowned English journalist and editor of the Edinburgh Review.
Other notable historical figures with the name Reeve include Tapping Reeve (1744-1823), an American lawyer and founder of the Litchfield Law School, and Christopher Reeve (1952-2004), the acclaimed American actor best known for portraying Superman in the iconic film series.
People
Reeve + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Reeve 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
Reeve: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Reeve?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,109 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Reeve 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 309,066 US residents.
Is Reeve a common name?
We classify Reeve as "Rare". It ranks above 90.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,144 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Reeve most popular?
The single biggest year for Reeve was 2017, when 68 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Reeve is about 16 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Reeve a male name?
Yes, 79.6% of people registered as Reeve 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.
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.