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Greig

Boys' name

Short form of Gregory

Greig has been given to 384 babies in the U.S. since 1938. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1957, with 23 recorded.

Babies named Greig, 1980

1 in 689,000

Greig over time, 1880–2025

Boys
010203018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Greig: meaning, origin, and history

Short form of Gregory

surname transfer

What Greig means

Greig is a short form of Gregory.

Documented naming usage and pronunciation

Greig is used in Scottish.

Another recorded pronunciation is /ˈɡɹɛɡ/ for Greig.

Meaning behind the documented name family

The name developed through Greig → Gregory. The family’s meaning is “watchful, vigilant”, recorded in English with the source elements Grēgórios.

Origin, language, and formation

Greig is used in English. Its origins include surname transfer.

Greig is recorded as a surname transferred into given-name use.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Gregory.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 384 boys were recorded with the name Greig between 1938 and 1980. Its highest annual count was 23 in 1957; its best national rank was #1,692 in 1957.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How common is Greig?

Greig had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 1980, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 1980
1 in 689,000
5 of 3,444,198 births
Among boys only
1 in 357,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 1980
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
477,468 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Greig sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 1980 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 477,468 children born in 1980 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Greig. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Greigs were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Greig was born before 1957 — so the typical Greig is around 68 today.

Median birth year
1957
About 68 years old
Biggest decade
1950s
42.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
58.9%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
321
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1950s — 42.4% of all recorded uses (163).

Is Greig rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1957 (23)
Years since peak
68
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Volatile
54.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,692
1957

Spellings of Greig

Greig is not the most common spelling — Craig is, with 62.8% against Greig's 0.08%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Greig is used

Across 1910–2025, Greig was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 2,312,266 across all states with data. It was least common in Ohio (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Ohio1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Greig has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Greig around the world

Where Greig ranks in official birth records elsewhere in the world. Rankings only — the number of births isn’t comparable between places, so it isn’t shown.

  • England & Wales
    1998–1998
    #2,419
    in 1998
  • Scotland
    1974–2020
    #711
    in 2020
  • South Australia
    1949–1985
    #449
    in 1985

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS, NRS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.

Greig by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,692
1957
Peak year
1957
23 that year
First recorded
1938
Last recorded
1980
All-time count
384
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Greig

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

GreerGreydenGreydonGregorGreycenGreshamGreysynCreigGrecoGreylanGregroyGreenGregeryGregaryGreylenGreeneKreigGreatGregreyGreysunGreysenGreyGreysinGreely

Sibling names for Greig

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Greig

Top names of 1957, Greig's peak yearThe 1950s in fullOther names that peaked in 1957Boys' names starting with G