Rainer
Derived from the Germanic name "Ragin-hari", meaning "counsel of warriors".
Name Census estimates that about 1,194 living Americans carry the first name Rainer. It is a predominantly male name (98.7% of registrations). The average person named Rainer today is around 24 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rainer births was 2018 (53 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rainer. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Rainer with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.2K
~ 1 in 287,064 Americans
Peak year
2018
53 babies that year
Average age
24
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,615
Tracked since 1955
Census
Rainer in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,173 people with the first name Rainer, which placed it at #7,110 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#7,110
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2K
2,173 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rainer
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rainer is White at 76.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Rainer described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Rainer at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.3% · 1,659
- Hispanic or Latino13.2% · 287
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.6% · 99
- Two or more races3.4% · 73
- Black or African American2.2% · 47
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Rainer
Rainer leans heavily male at 98.7% of total registrations, but 16 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Rainer as a male name
- Ranked #2,615 in 2024
- 51 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2018 (53 births)
Rainer as a female name
- Ranked #14,723 in 2020
- 6 female births in 2020
- Peak: 2020 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rainer leans strongly male. 2,088 people counted with this name were male (96.0%), compared with 87 female bearers (4.0%).
Popularity
Rainer: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rainer from the 1950s through to the 2020s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 339 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rainer remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rainer by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Rainer during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rainers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 5 states and territories. California, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Rainer, while Michigan, Florida, New York recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 24 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rainer
The given name Rainer originated from the Germanic language group. It is derived from the Old High German word "ragin," which means "counsel" or "advice." The name can also be traced back to the Proto-Germanic word "raginō," meaning "decision" or "judgment."
In the early Middle Ages, the name Rainer was popular among the Germanic tribes, particularly in regions now known as Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. It was often associated with wisdom, authority, and leadership qualities. The name gained prominence during the Carolingian dynasty, which ruled over a vast empire in Western and Central Europe from the 8th to the 9th century.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Rainer can be found in the Nibelungenlied, a famous Germanic heroic epic poem from around the 13th century. In the poem, Rainer is mentioned as a knight in the service of King Gunther.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Rainer. One of the most famous was Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), a renowned Austrian poet and novelist widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in modern literature. His works, such as the "Duino Elegies" and "The Sonnets to Orpheus," explored themes of existentialism, spirituality, and the human condition.
Another prominent figure was Rainer Hersch (1927-2020), a British composer and conductor of German descent. He was best known for his collaborations with notable choreographers and his contributions to the world of ballet music.
In the realm of science, Rainer Weiss (born 1932) is a notable figure. He is an American physicist and Nobel laureate who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017 for his pioneering work on the detection of gravitational waves.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982) was a highly influential German filmmaker, actor, playwright, and director. He was a prolific artist who left a lasting impact on the New German Cinema movement with his avant-garde and socially critical works.
Lastly, Rainer Gross (born 1951) is a German author and journalist known for his novels, short stories, and essays, many of which explore themes of identity, memory, and contemporary German society.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Rainer
People
Rainer + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rainer as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Rainer: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rainer?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,194 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rainer going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 287,064 US residents.
Is Rainer a common name?
We classify Rainer as "Rare". It ranks above 91.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,241 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rainer most popular?
The single biggest year for Rainer was 2018, when 53 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rainer is about 24 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rainer in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,173 people with the name Rainer, or 0.72 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #7,110 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Rainer in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Rainer?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rainer leans strongly male. 2,088 people counted with this name were male (96.0%), compared with 87 female bearers (4.0%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Rainer?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rainer is White at 76.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (13.2%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Rainer most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rainer in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.3% (1,659 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Rainer in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rainer a male name?
Yes, 98.7% of people registered as Rainer in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Rainer still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rainer in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Rainer can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Rainer as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people have the name Rainer on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.