Rayleigh
#1,451 in 2025Girls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Rayleigh has been given to 3,098 babies in the U.S. since 1995. In 2025 it ranked #1,451 of 17,293 girls’ names in use. Its peak year was 2018, with 189 recorded.
Babies named Rayleigh, 2025
1 in 22,200
Rayleigh over time, 1880–2025
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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
How common is Rayleigh?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 22,200
- 149 of 3,315,165 births
- Among girls only
- 1 in 10,800
- <0.01% of girls
- Rank, 2025
- #1,451
- of 17,293 girls’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 15,423 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Rayleigh sits on the popularity scale
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.
Put another way: gather 15,423 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Rayleigh. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Rayleighs were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Rayleigh was born before 2017 — so the typical Rayleigh is around 8 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2010s
- 52.2% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 98.1%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 3,000
- People you could plausibly meet
2010s — 52.2% of all recorded uses (1,567).
Is Rayleigh 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
- −6
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- −182
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- +25
- Places climbed
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 0.96×
- Fewer babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 78.8%
- Peak was 2018 (189)
- Years since peak
- 7
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Shifting
- 17.2% average annual change
Spellings of Rayleigh
Rayleigh is not the most common spelling — Ryleigh is, with 16.2% against Rayleigh's 1.4%.
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 Rayleigh is used
Across 2016–2025, Rayleigh was most concentrated in Mississippi — about 1 in 1,408 girls, against 1 in 8,554 across all states with data. It was least common in Virginia (1 in 100,000).
Shading is the share of that state's recorded girls 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.
Rayleigh around the world
Where Rayleigh 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 & Wales2008–2016#5,785in 2016
- Canada2012–2024#2,463in 2024
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics and Statistics Canada. ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.
Rayleigh by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a girl's name
Names similar to Rayleigh
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Names with a curve like Rayleigh
Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Rayleigh, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.
Sibling names for Rayleigh
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.