Reynard
A masculine given name meaning "brave counsel" from the Old French surname based on the fable character.
Name Census estimates that about 578 living Americans carry the first name Reynard. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Reynard today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Reynard births was 1964 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Reynard. 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 Reynard with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
578
~ 1 in 593,001 Americans
Peak year
1964
18 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,758
Tracked since 1915
Census
Reynard in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 527 people with the first name Reynard, which placed it at #19,863 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
#19,863
National first-name rank
People counted
527
527 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
64.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Reynard
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reynard is Black at 64.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (13.9%) and White (11.8%). 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 Reynard 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 Reynard at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American64.5% · 340
- Asian and Pacific Islander13.9% · 73
- White11.8% · 62
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 26
- Two or more races3.4% · 18
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.5% · 8
Popularity
Reynard: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Reynard from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 125 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Reynard 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 Reynard during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Reynards live
Origin
Meaning and history of Reynard
The name Reynard originated from the French language and has its roots in the Germanic name Reinhard, which means "strong counselor" or "brave counsel". The name Reynard first appeared in the medieval French literary cycle of fables known as "Roman de Renart" or "Reynard the Fox", which dates back to the late 12th century.
These fables featured a cunning and mischievous fox named Reynard, who often outwitted other animals and even humans through his wit and trickery. The popularity of these tales helped to spread the name Reynard across Europe, particularly in France, Germany, and the Low Countries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Reynard can be found in the 13th-century poem "Reinardus Vulpes" by the Flemish poet Willem die Madoc. This work, written in Latin, further popularized the character of Reynard and solidified the name's association with the sly and clever fox.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the name Reynard. One of the earliest was Reynard of Alessandria (c. 1170-1242), an Italian physician and philosopher known for his contributions to the field of medicine and his commentaries on Aristotle's works.
Another prominent figure was Reynard of Bath (c. 1285-1345), an English philosopher and logician who taught at the University of Oxford and was known for his work on modal logic and the theory of obligations.
In the 16th century, Reynard Praet (1508-1567) was a Flemish painter and engraver who gained recognition for his contributions to the Northern Renaissance art movement, particularly his portraiture and religious works.
During the 17th century, Reynard van Vianden (1624-1696) was a Dutch Golden Age painter known for his still-life paintings and landscapes, which were highly sought after by wealthy patrons across Europe.
In more recent times, Reynard Sekborn (1892-1963) was a Norwegian writer and poet who gained recognition for his lyrical works and contributions to the modernist literary movement in Scandinavia.
People
Reynard + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Reynard 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
Reynard: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Reynard?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 578 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Reynard 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 593,001 US residents.
Is Reynard a common name?
We classify Reynard as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 715 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Reynard most popular?
The single biggest year for Reynard was 1964, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Reynard is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Reynard in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 527 people with the name Reynard, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,863 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 Reynard 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 Reynard?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Reynard leans strongly male. 523 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 7 female bearers (1.3%). 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 Reynard?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reynard is Black at 64.5%. The next largest groups are Asian/Pacific Islander (13.9%) and White (11.8%). 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 Reynard most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Reynard in the 2020 Census, accounting for 64.5% (340 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 Reynard in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Reynard a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Reynard 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 Reynard still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Reynard 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 Reynard 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 are called Reynard?
Find out how many people have the name Reynard on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — a quick modern estimate with the living-bearer count front and centre.