Boy Names That Start With R
Boys' names beginning with R, ranked by how many babies actually got them — not by editorial preference — plus which ones are climbing and how the letter itself has moved.
- Share of boys, 2025
- 4.9%
- vs 4.7% in 2000
- Names in use
- 791
- 2,411 recorded since 1880
- Letter peaked
- 1946
- at 15.7% of names
- Rank among 26 letters
- #9
- by 2025 share
How R has fared since 1880
Share of all listed U.S. births given a name starting with R, year by year. Plotted as a share rather than a count — raw counts track how many babies were born, so every letter would appear to peak in 1957.
| Save name | Name & meaning | History 1926–2025, yearly counts; individually scaled | Babies 2025 · rank | 5-year rank movement | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,772#92 | Down 12 rank positions in five years | 1947 | |||
| 1,505#234 | Down 26 rank positions in five years | 1946 | |||
| 438#638 | Down 79 rank positions in five years | 1947 | |||
| 3,532#99 | Down 42 rank positions in five years | 1985 | |||
| 807#395 | Down 84 rank positions in five years | 1924 | |||
| 570#525 | Up 47 rank positions in five years | 1947 | |||
| 944#345 | Up 25 rank positions in five years | 1960 | |||
| 833#380 | Down 41 rank positions in five years | 1998 | |||
| 632#480 | Down 14 rank positions in five years | 1992 | |||
| 519#570 | Down 133 rank positions in five years | 1991 | |||
| 1,666#208 | Up 49 rank positions in five years | 2006 | |||
| 6,162#42 | Up 35 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 466#608 | Down 38 rank positions in five years | 1924 | |||
| 1,639#218 | Up 29 rank positions in five years | 2006 | |||
| 440#634 | Down 77 rank positions in five years | 2000 | |||
| 2,710#133 | Down 25 rank positions in five years | 2015 | |||
| 5,212#59 | Up 54 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 354#739 | Up 112 rank positions in five years | 1960 | |||
| 382#705 | Up 169 rank positions in five years | 1956 | |||
| 2,003#183 | Down 35 rank positions in five years | 2018 | |||
| 1,150#293 | Up 23 rank positions in five years | 2014 | |||
| 3,139#111 | Up 18 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 1,936#188 | Down 29 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 770#419 | Up 31 rank positions in five years | 2014 | |||
| 1,768#199 | Up 131 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 771#416 | Down 89 rank positions in five years | 2011 | |||
| 606#500 | Down 94 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 679#459 | Up 33 rank positions in five years | 2009 | |||
| 520#568 | Up 292 rank positions in five years | 1957 | |||
| 614#492 | Up 85 rank positions in five years | 2007 | |||
| 1,129#302 | Up 76 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 807#394 | Up 119 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 1,105#307 | Down 77 rank positions in five years | 2019 | |||
| 675#460 | Up 131 rank positions in five years | 2001 | |||
| 1,406#247 | Up 23 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 640#476 | Down 71 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 475#603 | Up 130 rank positions in five years | 2003 | |||
| 778#412 | Up 7 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 382#706 | Down 185 rank positions in five years | 2013 | |||
| 739#432 | Down 29 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 781#408 | Down 52 rank positions in five years | 2022 | |||
| 600#504 | Down 114 rank positions in five years | 2020 | |||
| 499#588 | Up 29 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 617#488 | Up 53 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 566#530 | Up 99 rank positions in five years | 2023 | |||
| 694#452 | Up 519 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 563#532 | Up 242 rank positions in five years | 2024 | |||
| 333#772 | Down 132 rank positions in five years | 2021 | |||
| 511#575 | Up 820 rank positions in five years | 2025 | |||
| 376#715 | Up 367 rank positions in five years | 2025 |
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R names climbing fastest
Biggest R names of all time
By total applications since 1880 — a different list from the one above, because it counts every generation, not just this one.
Every other letter
Sources & methodology
Rankings and counts come from official birth card-application data, 1880–2025. Counts are card applications rather than births, and any name given to fewer than 5 babies of one sex in a year is not published — so “—” means genuinely uncommon, never invalid. The “climbing fastest” row ranks by five-year rank movement as a ratio, and a name must be inside the top 1,000 with at least 200 applications in 2025 to qualify — a looser gate than the site-wide trending list uses, because inside a single letter the stricter one leaves some letters empty. Letter shares are measured over listed names only, and the 25-year comparison is a generation rather than five years because letter fashion moves far more slowly than any one name.