Reilley
An anglicized spelling of the Gaelic name Raghailleach, meaning "valorous" or "courageous".
Name Census estimates that about 283 living Americans carry the first name Reilley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 62.7% of registrations being female. The average person named Reilley today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Reilley births was 2008 (26 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Reilley. 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 Reilley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
283
~ 1 in 1,211,146 Americans
Peak year
2008
26 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2016 SSA rank
#13,745
Tracked since 1996
Census
Reilley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 338 people with the first name Reilley, which placed it at #27,177 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
#27,177
National first-name rank
People counted
338
338 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Reilley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reilley is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.2%) and Hispanic (5.6%). 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 Reilley 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 Reilley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.3% · 285
- Two or more races6.2% · 21
- Hispanic or Latino5.6% · 19
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.8% · 6
- Black or African American1.5% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Reilley
Reilley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 287 total registrations, 107 (37.3%) were male and 180 (62.7%) were female.
Reilley as a male name
- Ranked #13,745 in 2016
- 5 male births in 2016
- Peak: 2008 (16 births)
Reilley as a female name
- Ranked #14,286 in 2013
- 7 female births in 2013
- Peak: 2004 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Reilley on both sides of the split. Of the 340 people counted with this name, 120 were male (35.3%) and 220 were female (64.7%).
Popularity
Reilley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Reilley from the 1990s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 182 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Reilley 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 Reilley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Reilley
The name Reilley is an anglicized form of the Irish Gaelic name Reilly, which is derived from the Old Irish word "riaghail" meaning "rule" or "regulator." It is believed to have originated as a descriptive name or occupational surname for someone who worked as a steward or overseer.
The earliest recorded use of the name Reilley can be traced back to the 12th century in Ireland, where it was primarily found in the counties of Cavan, Longford, and Westmeath. In these regions, the Reillys were a prominent clan and held significant power and influence during the Middle Ages.
One of the earliest notable figures with the name Reilley was Maolmordha Reilly, who was the Chief of Muintir Reilly and lived in the 14th century. He played a crucial role in the ongoing conflicts between the Irish clans and the Anglo-Norman settlers in Ireland during that time.
Another prominent individual with the name Reilley was Edmund Reilly (1589-1669), an Irish Jesuit priest and author who spent much of his life in exile due to the persecution of Catholics in Ireland. He wrote several influential works on theology and philosophy during his lifetime.
In the 18th century, Andrew Reilly (1742-1809) was a notable Irish-American merchant and patriot who supported the American Revolution. He served as a member of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and was instrumental in the establishment of several educational institutions in Philadelphia.
Moving into the 19th century, John Reilly (1810-1888) was an Irish-American businessman and philanthropist who became one of the wealthiest men in New York City. He made his fortune in the textile industry and donated generously to various Catholic charities and educational institutions.
Another notable figure with the name Reilley was Albert Reilley (1883-1962), an American chemist and engineer who made significant contributions to the field of chemical engineering. He is best known for developing the Reilley Distillation Method, a widely used technique in the chemical industry.
While the name Reilley has Irish roots, it has since spread to various parts of the world, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, carried by immigrants from Ireland and their descendants.
People
Reilley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Reilley 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
Reilley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Reilley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 283 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Reilley 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 1,211,146 US residents.
Is Reilley a common name?
We classify Reilley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 287 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Reilley most popular?
The single biggest year for Reilley was 2008, when 26 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Reilley is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Reilley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 338 people with the name Reilley, or 0.11 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #27,177 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 Reilley 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 Reilley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Reilley on both sides of the split. Of the 340 people counted with this name, 120 were male (35.3%) and 220 were female (64.7%). 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 Reilley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Reilley is White at 84.3%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.2%) and Hispanic (5.6%). 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 Reilley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Reilley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.3% (285 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 Reilley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Reilley a female name?
Yes, 62.7% of people registered as Reilley 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 Reilley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Reilley 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 Reilley 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 are named Reilley?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.