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Rainer

#3,428 in 2025Boys' name

Counsel by the gods + army

Rainer has been given to 1,276 babies in the U.S. since 1955. In 2025 it ranked #3,428 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2018, with 53 recorded.

Babies named Rainer, 2025

1 in 97,500

Rainer over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Rainer: meaning, origin, and history

Counsel by the gods + army

Old High German

What Rainer means

Rainer means “counsel by the gods + army”, associated with raginą and harjaz.

Dictionary etymologyReferences, data & attribution

Variant of Rayner, a patronymic surname from a medieval given name from Proto-Germanic *raginą (“counsel by the gods”) + *harjaz (“army”). Also borrowed from modern German.

Excerpt from Wiktionary: Rainer (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Origin, language, and formation

Rainer is used in English, Estonian, Finnish and German. Its origins include Old High German.

Related names and everyday forms

Related names include Rayner and Ragnar.

Pronunciation and spelling

In Finnish, Rainer is pronounced /ˈrɑi̯ner/.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 1,260 boys were recorded with the name Rainer between 1955 and 2025. Its highest annual count was 53 in 2018; its best national rank was #1,782 in 1964.

Over 5 years its rank fell, from #2,828 in 2020 to #3,428 in 2025. Over 10 years its rank fell, from #3,210 in 2015 to #3,428 in 2025.

In the United States, 16 girls were recorded with the name Rainer between 2009 and 2020. Its highest annual count was 6 in 2020; its best national rank was #14,724 in 2020.

How common is Rainer?

Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 97,500
34 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 50,200
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2025
#3,428
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
67,586 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Rainer 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 2025 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 67,586 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rainer. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Rainers were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Rainer was born before 2008 — so the typical Rainer is around 17 today.

Median birth year
2008
About 17 years old
Biggest decade
2010s
26.5% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
63.0%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
1,260
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2010s — 26.5% of all recorded uses (334).

Is Rainer 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
−804
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
−600
Places dropped
Rank vs 10 years ago
−218
Places dropped
Births vs 10 years ago
0.94×
Fewer babies than then
Share of its own peak
64.2%
Peak was 2018 (53)
Years since peak
7
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
19.9% average annual change
Best rank ever
#1,782
1964

Spellings of Rainer

Rainer is not the most common spelling — Tanner is, with 47.6% against Rainer's 0.61%.

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 Rainer is used

Across 1910–2025, Rainer was most concentrated in California — about 1 in — boys, against 1 in 468,149 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).

00 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1California1 in —
  2. 2Florida1 in —
  3. 3Michigan1 in —
  4. 4New York1 in —
  5. 5Texas1 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. Rainer has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Rainer around the world

Where Rainer 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
    1997–2022
    #4,790
    in 2022
  • France
    1942–1951
    #1,153
    in 1951
  • Norway
    1880–1992
    #574
    in 1992
  • Canada
    1995–2024
    #2,855
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1950–2013
    #754
    in 2013

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Norway, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. SSB, CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Rainer by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#3,428
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Down 600
Best rank ever
#1,782
1964
Peak year
2018
53 that year
First recorded
1955
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
1,260
Count in 2025
34

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#14,724
2020
Peak year
2020
6 that year
First recorded
2009
Last recorded
2020
All-time count
16
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Rainer

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

RaidynRaiderRainierRaiyanRaihanRaineRainBannerGarnerSumnerRennerBrennerJennerKennerRainnWernerRaineyHunnerRaidenRaifeDannerRaynerRainenWagner

Sibling names for Rainer

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 Rainer

Top names of 2018, Rainer's peak yearThe 2010s in fullOther names that peaked in 1964Boys' names starting with R