Name Awesome

Reece

#460 in 2025UnisexBoys' nameGirls' name

Probably ardor or enthusiasm

Reece has been given to 26,917 babies in the U.S. since 1880. In 2025 it ranked #460 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2001, with 798 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 82% boys, 18% girls all-time.

Babies named Reece, 2025

1 in 4,910

Reece over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
020040060080018801900192019401960198020002020

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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Girls or boys — Reece over time

In 2025, Reece went to 23% girls and 77% boys.

18802025

A sex is only published in years it reached five applications, so a stretch at 0% or 100% means the other side stayed under that floor — not that it was never used.

Reece: meaning, origin, and history

Probably ardor or enthusiasm

Welsh, in an Anglicized spelling

About Reece

Reece is an Anglicized spelling of Welsh Rhys, probably meaning “ardor” or “enthusiasm.” It brings an old Welsh personal name into a spelling that makes its English pronunciation immediately apparent. Actor and writer Reece Shearsmith and footballer Reece James are prominent modern bearers.

Welsh origins and related forms

Rhys goes back to Old Welsh Ris. The proposed meaning refers to ardor or enthusiasm, although the exact ancient interpretation is not fully certain. The name has been borne by several Welsh rulers, including the twelfth-century Rhys ap Gruffydd.

Reece, Rees, and Reese are closely related spellings. They preserve the same name family while presenting it differently on the page. Rhys keeps the Welsh form, while Reece supplies an English-style ee vowel and final ce.

Reece is pronounced REES, as one syllable. Its five letters give it a fuller written appearance than Rhys without lengthening the spoken name. It is commonly used as a full given name rather than requiring a longer formal version.

Reece Shearsmith and television comedy

Reece Shearsmith is associated with dark television comedy, including Inside No. 9, created with Steve Pemberton. The series uses self-contained stories, each linked to a setting marked by the number nine.

That anthology structure allows the writers to move between different characters, periods, and kinds of suspense. Shearsmith's first name consequently appears in the credits of a project built around repeated changes of role and dramatic setting.

Shearsmith and Pemberton won the BAFTA for Writer: Comedy in 2018 for Inside No. 9. The award recognizes the writing partnership behind the program, giving Reece a specific association with the craft of television storytelling as well as performance.

Reece James and football

Reece James came through Chelsea's academy and started the 2021 UEFA Champions League final against Manchester City. Chelsea won the match in Porto, making him part of the club's European championship-winning team.

The result connects the name with one of the major events in European club football. James had watched Chelsea's earlier Champions League triumph as a young supporter before later taking part in a winning final himself.

His public career and Shearsmith's television work have made the exact Reece spelling familiar in quite different settings. Both are modern bearers of a name whose Welsh family history reaches much further back.

American popularity

Reece's strongest American male year was 2001, with 798 boys and a rank of #344. It has continued at a substantial level: the SSA counted 631 boys in 2010 and 675 in 2025.

The 2025 male rank was #460. Girls' use reached its highest count and best rank in 2009, with 269 and #986; in 2025 there were 202 girls, at #1,149. The spelling has therefore maintained parallel American use for boys and girls, with boys the larger group.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, history, and cultural connections draw on the references below. Existing Wiktionary material is attributed under CC BY-SA 4.0 where applicable. American figures use the local Social Security Administration exact-spelling series; counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

Wiktionary material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

How popular is Reece?

In 2025, Reece ranked #460 among boys in the United States, with 675 recorded uses. The U.S. birth records first list this spelling for boys in 1880; its largest annual count was 798 in 2001. Rankings count each spelling separately. They describe national use, so local familiarity can differ. The popularity chart shows whether the name has remained common, returned after a quieter period, or risen recently.

How common is Reece?

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

Among all babies, 2025
1 in 4,910
675 of 3,315,165 births
Among boys only
1 in 2,530
0.04% of boys
Rank, 2025
#460
of 13,926 boys’ names in use
Coin-flip room size
3,405 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Reece 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 1002%
School of 50010%

Put another way: gather 3,405 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Reece. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Reeces were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Reece was born before 2006 — so the typical Reece is around 19 today.

Median birth year
2006
About 19 years old
Biggest decade
2000s
32.8% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
69.7%
A modern name
Recorded since 1950
20,467
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

2000s — 32.8% of all recorded uses (7,216).

Is Reece 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
−5
Places dropped
Rank vs 5 years ago
+131
Places climbed
Rank vs 10 years ago
+111
Places climbed
Births vs 10 years ago
1.37×
More babies than then
Share of its own peak
84.6%
Peak was 2001 (798)
Years since peak
24
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Very steady
5.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#344
2001

Spellings of Reece

Reece is not the most common spelling — Rene is, with 28.9% against Reece's 12.4%.

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 Reece is used — boys

Across 2016–2025, Reece was most concentrated in Louisiana — about 1 in 1,282 boys, against 1 in 2,949 across all states with data. It was least common in North Dakota (1 in 7,143).

1478 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Louisiana1 in 1,282
  2. 2Kentucky1 in 1,493
  3. 3Nebraska1 in 1,493
  4. 4Oklahoma1 in 1,667
  5. 5Arkansas1 in 1,695
  6. 6Indiana1 in 1,695
  7. 7Iowa1 in 1,852
  8. 8Montana1 in 1,961

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.

Geographically, Reece is somewhat regional — more concentrated than 23% of the names used widely enough to compare. See the most regional names

Where Reece is used — girls

Across 2016–2025, Reece was most concentrated in Kansas — about 1 in 3,125 girls, against 1 in 13,347 across all states with data. It was least common in Michigan (1 in 100,000).

132 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Kansas1 in 3,125
  2. 2Montana1 in 5,263
  3. 3Indiana1 in 5,556
  4. 4Tennessee1 in 6,250
  5. 5Louisiana1 in 6,667
  6. 6Missouri1 in 7,143
  7. 7North Carolina1 in 7,143
  8. 8Kentucky1 in 8,333

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.

Reece around the world

Where Reece 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
    1996–2025
    #621
    in 2025
  • Scotland
    1987–2025
    #400
    in 2025
  • Northern Ireland
    1997–2025
    #314
    in 2025
  • Ireland
    1991–2025
    #402
    in 2025
  • France
    2008–2008
    #5,633
    in 2008
  • Canada
    1991–2024
    #916
    in 2024
  • South Australia
    1945–2013
    #389
    in 2013
  • New South Wales
    1989–2001
    #92
    in 2001

Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Central Statistics Office, Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques, Statistics Canada, Consumer and Business Services (South Australia) and NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages. ONS, NRS, NISRA data under Open Government Licence v3.0. CSO, CBS SA, NSW BDM data under CC BY 4.0. INSEE data under Licence Ouverte / Etalab 2.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence.

Notable people named Reece

People whose public names include Reece, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Reece in other languages

Cross-language forms and variants of Reece. Linked forms have their own page here.

ReesReese

Variant forms from Wikidata (CC0). Most are used mainly outside the United States; U.S. birth records statistics cover US usage only.

Reece by the numbers

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

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
#460
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 131
Best rank ever
#344
2001
Peak year
2001
798 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
21,968
Count in 2025
675

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
#1,149
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
Up 392
Best rank ever
#986
2009
Peak year
2009
269 that year
First recorded
1994
Last recorded
2025
All-time count
4,949
Count in 2025
202

Names similar to Reece

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

ReeseReedReeveReefReesReevesTyreceReceReeganJaeceTyreeceReedyBreeceReederReeyanRieceReedieKyreeceTyrieceDueceReehanReecieKreeceReeyansh

Names with a curve like Reece

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Reece, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

UrielPierceTraceCadeMohamedKadeMaximilianIsaiasRohanRodrigoJulienMauricio

Sibling names for Reece

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 Reece

Top names of 2001, Reece's peak yearThe 2000s in fullOther names that peaked in 2001Boys' names starting with R