Reynolds
An English given name derived from the nickname Renny or Renald, meaning "counsel rule".
Name Census estimates that about 1,016 living Americans carry the first name Reynolds. It is a predominantly male name (93.1% of registrations). The average person named Reynolds today is around 42 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Reynolds births was 2024 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Reynolds. 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.
People living today
1.0K
~ 1 in 337,357 Americans
Peak year
2024
36 babies that year
Average age
42
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,994
Tracked since 1888
Census
Reynolds in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,152 people with the first name Reynolds, which placed it at #11,247 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
#11,247
National first-name rank
People counted
1.2K
1,152 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.4
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
68.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Reynolds
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reynolds is White at 68.2%. The next largest groups are Black (16.1%) and Hispanic (9.0%). 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 Reynolds 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 Reynolds at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White68.2% · 786
- Black or African American16.1% · 186
- Hispanic or Latino9.0% · 104
- Two or more races3.0% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 26
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 15
Gender
Gender distribution for Reynolds
Reynolds leans heavily male at 93.1% of total registrations, but 123 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Reynolds as a male name
- Ranked #4,994 in 2024
- 20 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1923 (32 births)
Reynolds as a female name
- Ranked #7,161 in 2024
- 16 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (16 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Reynolds leans strongly male. 978 people counted with this name were male (84.8%), compared with 175 female bearers (15.2%).
Popularity
Reynolds: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Reynolds from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 229 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Reynolds remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Reynolds 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 Reynolds during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Reynolds' live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas recorded the most babies named Reynolds, while New York, Texas, Georgia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 12 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Reynolds
The name Reynolds is an English masculine given name derived from the Old English words "ræd" meaning "counsel" and "wulf" meaning "wolf". The name's origins can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, around the 5th to 11th centuries.
Reynolds was a relatively common name among the Anglo-Saxons, particularly in regions like Wessex and Mercia. It was often given to boys born into noble families or those destined for leadership roles within their communities. The name's meaning, "wise wolf" or "cunning counselor", was seen as a desirable trait in those times.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Reynolds dates back to the 9th century, when a powerful Anglo-Saxon nobleman named Reynolds the Bold was mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for his exploits during the Danish invasions of England. Another notable Reynolds from this period was Reynolds of Exeter, a renowned scholar and teacher who lived in the late 10th century.
During the Middle Ages, the name Reynolds continued to be used, albeit less frequently. A few notable individuals who bore the name include Reynolds de Mohun, a 12th-century English crusader who fought in the Third Crusade under Richard the Lionheart. Sir Reynolds Calvert, born in 1580, was a prominent English colonist and the first Governor of the Colony of Avalon in Newfoundland.
In the 17th century, Reynolds emerged as a popular name among the Puritans in England and later in the American colonies. One of the most famous individuals with this name was Sir Joshua Reynolds, born in 1723, an influential English portrait painter and one of the founders of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Other notable individuals named Reynolds throughout history include Reynolds Price, an American novelist and scholar born in 1933, and Reynolds Woodcock, a British fashion designer and couturier born in 1947. Additionally, the name has been associated with several fictional characters, such as Reynolds Woodrow from the novel "The Green Mile" by Stephen King.
People
Reynolds + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Reynolds 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
Reynolds: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Reynolds?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,016 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Reynolds 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 337,357 US residents.
Is Reynolds a common name?
We classify Reynolds as "Rare". It ranks above 90.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,779 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Reynolds most popular?
The single biggest year for Reynolds was 2024, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Reynolds is about 42 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Reynolds in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,152 people with the name Reynolds, or 0.38 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #11,247 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 Reynolds 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 Reynolds?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Reynolds leans strongly male. 978 people counted with this name were male (84.8%), compared with 175 female bearers (15.2%). 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 Reynolds?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reynolds is White at 68.2%. The next largest groups are Black (16.1%) and Hispanic (9.0%). 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 Reynolds most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Reynolds in the 2020 Census, accounting for 68.2% (786 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 Reynolds in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Reynolds a male name?
Yes, 93.1% of people registered as Reynolds 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 Reynolds still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Reynolds 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 Reynolds 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 Americans are named Reynolds?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.