Raynell
Derived from the Old English words "raen" and "el", meaning "advice" and "protector".
Name Census estimates that about 953 living Americans carry the first name Raynell. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 62.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Raynell today is around 47 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Raynell births was 1981 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Raynell. 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.
Key insights
- • Raynell was once a predominantly female name but has become increasingly popular for boys in recent decades.
- • Raynell sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
953
~ 1 in 359,658 Americans
Peak year
1981
30 babies that year
Average age
47
years old
2018 SSA rank
#9,477
Tracked since 1925
Census
Raynell in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 888 people with the first name Raynell, which placed it at #13,554 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
#13,554
National first-name rank
People counted
888
888 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
60.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Raynell
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raynell is Black at 60.9%. The next largest groups are White (22.6%) and Hispanic (6.6%). 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 Raynell 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 Raynell at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American60.9% · 541
- White22.6% · 201
- Hispanic or Latino6.6% · 59
- Two or more races3.9% · 35
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.5% · 31
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.4% · 21
Gender
Gender distribution for Raynell
Raynell is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,154 total registrations, 438 (38.0%) were male and 716 (62.0%) were female.
Raynell as a male name
- Ranked #9,477 in 2018
- 8 male births in 2018
- Peak: 1976 (18 births)
Raynell as a female name
- Ranked #14,780 in 2023
- 6 female births in 2023
- Peak: 1956 (19 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Raynell on both sides of the split. Of the 884 people counted with this name, 346 were male (39.1%) and 538 were female (60.9%).
Popularity
Raynell: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Raynell from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 222 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1980s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Raynell 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 Raynell during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Raynells live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Louisiana, Alabama, California recorded the most babies named Raynell, while Texas, California, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Raynell
The name Raynell is a modern variation of the French name Renelle, which itself is a diminutive form of the name Rene. Rene has its origins in the Old German name Rainier, which means "counsel" and "decision." The name Rainier was derived from the Germanic elements "ragin," meaning "counsel" or "decision," and "hari," meaning "army."
Raynell can be traced back to the 12th century, where it was used as a surname in France. The name gained popularity as a given name in the 19th century, particularly in the United States. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Raynell as a given name was in 1849, when Raynell Jennings was born in Tennessee.
In the 16th century, Raynell Grenville was a prominent English soldier and politician who served as a Member of Parliament and fought in the Spanish Armada. He lived from 1545 to 1634.
Raynell Lanerie was an American jockey who rode in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in the 1990s. He was born in 1964 and had a successful career in horse racing.
In the literary world, Raynell Chesser was an American author and journalist who wrote several historical novels and non-fiction books about the American West. She lived from 1923 to 2008.
Raynell Cooper was an American blues singer and guitarist who was active in the 1930s and 1940s. She was born in 1909 and was known for her powerful voice and guitar playing style.
Raynell Andreychuk was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as a Senator from 1993 to 2013. She was born in 1944 and was the first woman to serve as Speaker of the Senate of Canada.
People
Raynell + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Raynell 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
Raynell: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Raynell?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 953 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Raynell 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 359,658 US residents.
Is Raynell a common name?
We classify Raynell as "Very Rare". It ranks above 89.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,154 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Raynell most popular?
The single biggest year for Raynell was 1981, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Raynell is about 47 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Raynell in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 888 people with the name Raynell, or 0.29 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #13,554 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 Raynell 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 Raynell?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Raynell on both sides of the split. Of the 884 people counted with this name, 346 were male (39.1%) and 538 were female (60.9%). 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 Raynell?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Raynell is Black at 60.9%. The next largest groups are White (22.6%) and Hispanic (6.6%). 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 Raynell most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Raynell in the 2020 Census, accounting for 60.9% (541 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 Raynell in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Raynell a female name?
Yes, 62.0% of people registered as Raynell in the SSA data are female. 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 Raynell still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Raynell 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 Raynell 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 common is the name Raynell?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Raynell on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.