Reef
#2,509 in 2025UnisexBoys' nameGirls' nameMeaning not yet documented
Reef has been given to 1,353 babies in the U.S. since 1996. In 2025 it ranked #2,509 of 13,926 boys’ names in use. Its peak year was 2021, with 81 recorded. It's used for both sexes: 95% boys, 5% girls all-time.
Babies named Reef, 2025
1 in 61,400
Reef 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 Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.
Girls or boys — Reef over time
In 2025, Reef went to 11% girls and 89% boys.
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.
How common is Reef?
Everything below is computed from the 2025 data — the most recent year available.
- Among all babies, 2025
- 1 in 61,400
- 54 of 3,315,165 births
- Among boys only
- 1 in 31,600
- <0.01% of boys
- Rank, 2025
- #2,509
- of 13,926 boys’ names in use
- Coin-flip room size
- 42,555 kids
- Even odds of a second one
Where Reef 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 42,555 children born in 2025 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Reef. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.
When Reefs were born
Half of everyone ever recorded as Reef was born before 2015 — so the typical Reef is around 10 today.
- Biggest decade
- 2010s
- 44.4% of all use
- Born in the last 25 years
- 96.9%
- A modern name
- Recorded since 1950
- 1,290
- People you could plausibly meet
2010s — 44.4% of all recorded uses (573).
Is Reef 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
- +39
- Places climbed
- Rank vs 5 years ago
- −167
- Places dropped
- Rank vs 10 years ago
- −33
- Places dropped
- Births vs 10 years ago
- 1.06×
- More babies than then
- Share of its own peak
- 66.7%
- Peak was 2021 (81)
- Years since peak
- 4
- Years
- Year-to-year steadiness
- Shifting
- 17.8% average annual change
Spellings of Reef
Reef is not the most common spelling — Lee is, with 33.8% against Reef's 0.19%.
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 Reef is used
Across 1910–2025, Reef was most concentrated in Hawaii — about 1 in 3,704 boys, against 1 in 53,090 across all states with data. It was least common in Texas (1 in —).
Most concentrated
- 1Hawaii1 in 3,704
- 2Florida1 in 20,000
- 3California1 in 50,000
- 4North Carolina1 in —
- 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. Reef has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.
Reef around the world
Where Reef 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 & Wales1996–2025#3,256in 2025
- Canada2011–2022#2,959in 2022
- South Australia1999–2013#389in 2013
Popularity data from Office for National Statistics, Statistics Canada and Consumer and Business Services (South Australia). ONS data under Open Government Licence v3.0. StatCan data under Statistics Canada Open Licence. CBS SA data under CC BY 4.0.
Reef by the numbers
The raw record for each sex the name is used for.
As a boy's name
Names similar to Reef
Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.
Sibling names for Reef
Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.