Trey
A masculine name derived from the English word "three".
Name Census estimates that about 39,389 living Americans carry the first name Trey. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Trey today is around 25 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Trey births was 1999 (1,803 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Trey. 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 Trey with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Trey is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 97 girls registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
39K
~ 1 in 8,702 Americans
Peak year
1999
1,803 babies that year
Average age
25
years old
2024 SSA rank
#789
Tracked since 1948
Census
Trey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 39,171 people with the first name Trey, which placed it at #1,063 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
#1,063
National first-name rank
People counted
39K
39,171 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
13.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
66.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Trey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Trey is White at 66.9%. The next largest groups are Black (15.7%) and Two or More Races (8.7%). 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 Trey 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 Trey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White66.9% · 26,189
- Black or African American15.7% · 6,150
- Two or more races8.7% · 3,407
- Hispanic or Latino6.3% · 2,481
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 487
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 457
Gender
Gender distribution for Trey
Out of the 40,293 babies given the name Trey since 1880, 99.8% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Trey as a male name
- Ranked #789 in 2024
- 317 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1999 (1,798 births)
Trey as a female name
- Ranked #14,087 in 2004
- 7 female births in 2004
- Peak: 1993 (11 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Trey appears almost entirely male. Of the 39,163 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female.
Popularity
Trey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Trey from the 1940s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 13,901 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
Trey 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 Trey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Treys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, Ohio, Florida recorded the most babies named Trey, while Rhode Island, Vermont, District of Columbia recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 748 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Trey
The name Trey has its origins in the French language, where it was originally a diminutive form of the name André or Andrew. Derived from the Old French word "treis" meaning "three," it was traditionally used as a way to distinguish between the third son or child in a family.
In medieval France, the practice of using numerical names or nicknames to differentiate between siblings with the same first name was quite common among the nobility and upper classes. Trey, along with variants like Tiers and Troisième, became a popular way to refer to the third son or child.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Trey can be found in the 13th century French epic poem "The Song of Roland," where a character named Trey is mentioned as one of Charlemagne's knights. While this may have been a fictional character, it suggests that the name was in use during that time period.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals bearing the name Trey. One of the earliest was Trey of Anjou (1151-1206), a French nobleman and military leader who fought in the Third Crusade alongside Richard the Lionheart and Philip II of France.
Another historical figure was Trey de Montfort (1208-1265), a French nobleman and leader of the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in southern France. He played a significant role in the conflict and was eventually killed in battle.
In the 16th century, Trey de la Bourdaisière (1519-1569) was a French diplomat and military commander who served under King Henry II and Catherine de' Medici. He was involved in various military campaigns and diplomatic missions throughout Europe.
In more recent times, Trey Anastasio (born 1964) is an American musician and composer, best known as the co-founder and lead singer of the rock band Phish. He has had a successful career in the music industry and is widely recognized for his songwriting and guitar skills.
Another notable figure is Trey Gowdy (born 1964), an American lawyer, politician, and former federal prosecutor who served as a U.S. Representative from South Carolina from 2011 to 2019. He gained national attention for his role in various congressional investigations and hearings.
While the name Trey has French origins, it has gained popularity and usage in other cultures and languages over time, particularly in English-speaking countries. However, its historical roots can be traced back to medieval France and the practice of using numerical names within families.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Trey
People
Trey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Trey as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Trey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Trey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 39,389 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Trey 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 8,702 US residents.
Is Trey a common name?
We classify Trey as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 40,293 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Trey most popular?
The single biggest year for Trey was 1999, when 1,803 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Trey is about 25 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Trey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 39,171 people with the name Trey, or 12.97 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,063 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 Trey 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 Trey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Trey appears almost entirely male. Of the 39,163 people counted with this name, 99.5% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Trey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Trey is White at 66.9%. The next largest groups are Black (15.7%) and Two or More Races (8.7%). 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 Trey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Trey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 66.9% (26,189 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 Trey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Trey a male name?
Yes, 99.8% of people registered as Trey 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 Trey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Trey 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 Trey 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 Trey?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.