Ren
A Japanese given name meaning "lotus" or "water lily".
Name Census estimates that about 3,190 living Americans carry the first name Ren. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 78.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Ren today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ren births was 2023 (287 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ren. 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 Ren with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Ren is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 15 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
3.2K
~ 1 in 107,447 Americans
Peak year
2023
287 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,145
Tracked since 1915
Census
Ren in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,627 people with the first name Ren, which placed it at #4,919 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
#4,919
National first-name rank
People counted
3.6K
3,627 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
41.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ren
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ren is White at 41.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (35.1%) and Two or More Races (11.4%). 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 Ren 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 Ren at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White41.7% · 1,513
- Asian and Pacific Islander35.1% · 1,274
- Two or more races11.4% · 414
- Hispanic or Latino7.4% · 268
- Black or African American3.8% · 137
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 21
Gender
Gender distribution for Ren
Ren is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 3,332 total registrations, 2,604 (78.2%) were male and 728 (21.8%) were female.
Ren as a male name
- Ranked #1,145 in 2024
- 183 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (199 births)
Ren as a female name
- Ranked #2,272 in 2024
- 82 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (88 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ren on both sides of the split. Of the 3,626 people counted with this name, 2,527 were male (69.7%) and 1,099 were female (30.3%).
Popularity
Ren: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ren from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 1,277 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ren 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 Ren during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rens live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Ren, while Oklahoma, Nevada, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 44 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ren
The name Ren has its origins in the Chinese language, and it dates back to ancient times. It is a single-character name that can be written using different Chinese characters, each with its own meaning and nuance.
One of the most common Chinese characters used to write the name Ren is 仁, which means "benevolence," "humanity," or "virtue." This character is deeply rooted in the Confucian philosophy, which emphasizes the importance of cultivating moral virtues and living in harmony with others.
The name Ren can also be written using the character 人, which means "person" or "human being." This character is a fundamental component of many Chinese names and reflects the significance of the individual within the larger context of society and humanity.
In ancient Chinese literature and historical records, the name Ren appears in various contexts. For instance, the philosopher Ren Xiao (孔穎達, 574-648 CE) was a renowned scholar and commentator on the Confucian classics during the Tang Dynasty.
Ren Zong (任宗, 1032-1097 CE), also known as Ren Zongmi, was a influential Buddhist monk and philosopher who synthesized the teachings of various Buddhist schools during the Song Dynasty.
Another notable figure in Chinese history was Ren Renfa (任人伐, 1254-1327 CE), a military strategist and advisor to the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan during the Yuan Dynasty.
In Japanese culture, the name Ren (蓮 or 恋) can also be found, with meanings such as "lotus" or "love." One famous bearer of this name was Ren Zhiqian (蓮池潜, 1608-1677 CE), a Zen Buddhist monk and calligrapher who lived during the Edo period.
Beyond the Asian context, the name Ren has also been used in other cultures, albeit less commonly. For example, in Scandinavian mythology, Ren is the name of a Norse sea goddess associated with fertility and prosperity.
People
Ren + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ren 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
Ren: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ren?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,190 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ren 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 107,447 US residents.
Is Ren a common name?
We classify Ren as "Rare". It ranks above 95.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,332 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ren most popular?
The single biggest year for Ren was 2023, when 287 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ren is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ren in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,627 people with the name Ren, or 1.20 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,919 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 Ren 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 Ren?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Ren on both sides of the split. Of the 3,626 people counted with this name, 2,527 were male (69.7%) and 1,099 were female (30.3%). 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 Ren?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ren is White at 41.7%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (35.1%) and Two or More Races (11.4%). 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 Ren most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ren in the 2020 Census, accounting for 41.7% (1,513 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 Ren in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ren a male name?
Yes, 78.2% of people registered as Ren 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 Ren still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ren 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 Ren 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 Ren?
Find out how many people share the name Ren on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.