Rieley
A feminine variant of the name Riley, likely derived from an Irish surname with uncertain meaning.
Name Census estimates that about 309 living Americans carry the first name Rieley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 64.6% of registrations being female. The average person named Rieley today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rieley births was 2005 (31 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rieley. 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 Rieley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
309
~ 1 in 1,109,237 Americans
Peak year
2005
31 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2013 SSA rank
#13,656
Tracked since 1994
Census
Rieley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 392 people with the first name Rieley, which placed it at #24,539 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
#24,539
National first-name rank
People counted
392
392 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rieley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rieley is White at 78.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.2%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). 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 Rieley 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 Rieley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.8% · 309
- Hispanic or Latino8.2% · 32
- Two or more races6.4% · 25
- Black or African American4.8% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 7
Gender
Gender distribution for Rieley
Rieley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 314 total registrations, 111 (35.4%) were male and 203 (64.6%) were female.
Rieley as a male name
- Ranked #13,656 in 2013
- 5 male births in 2013
- Peak: 2005 (10 births)
Rieley as a female name
- Ranked #15,843 in 2016
- 6 female births in 2016
- Peak: 2005 (21 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Rieley on both sides of the split. Of the 388 people counted with this name, 128 were male (33.0%) and 260 were female (67.0%).
Popularity
Rieley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rieley from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 208 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rieley 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 Rieley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rieley
The name Rieley is an English given name with origins dating back to the Middle Ages. It is a variant spelling of the name Riley, which is derived from the Old English word "ríg" meaning "rye" or "ridge." The name was originally an occupational surname for someone who lived near a ridge or worked with rye crops.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rieley can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a survey of land and property commissioned by William the Conqueror after the Norman conquest of England. The name appears as "Rigeleie" in reference to a settlement or estate.
During the medieval period, the name Rieley was primarily used in Northern England and Scotland, particularly in areas with strong Anglo-Saxon and Norman influence. It was not uncommon for people to adopt surnames based on their occupation, location, or physical characteristics during this time.
In terms of historical figures bearing the name Rieley, one notable individual was Sir Rieley Heywood (1550-1624), an English politician and landowner who served as a Member of Parliament for Wigan during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
Another significant figure was Rieley Ridsdale (1663-1736), an English mathematician and astronomer who made contributions to the study of planetary motions and the calculation of eclipses.
In the 18th century, Rieley Hawkins (1722-1801) was a British naval officer who served in the Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary Wars.
Moving into the 19th century, Rieley Dunston (1820-1895) was a prominent British architect known for his design of several churches and public buildings in London and the surrounding areas.
Finally, Rieley Warburton (1875-1952) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Lancashire County Cricket Club in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
While the name Rieley has retained its English roots and heritage, it has also been adopted in other parts of the world, particularly in countries with strong British or American cultural influences.
People
Rieley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rieley 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
Rieley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rieley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 309 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rieley 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 1,109,237 US residents.
Is Rieley a common name?
We classify Rieley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 79.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 314 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rieley most popular?
The single biggest year for Rieley was 2005, when 31 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rieley is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rieley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 392 people with the name Rieley, or 0.13 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #24,539 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 Rieley 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 Rieley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Rieley on both sides of the split. Of the 388 people counted with this name, 128 were male (33.0%) and 260 were female (67.0%). 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 Rieley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rieley is White at 78.8%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.2%) and Two or More Races (6.4%). 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 Rieley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rieley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.8% (309 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 Rieley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rieley a female name?
Yes, 64.6% of people registered as Rieley 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 Rieley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rieley 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 Rieley 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 common is the name Rieley?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.