Rylee
A feminine name of American origin meaning "brave little bear".
Name Census estimates that about 71,554 living Americans carry the first name Rylee. It sits at #125 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It is a predominantly female name (92.4% of registrations). The average person named Rylee today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Rylee births was 2010 (3,298 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Rylee. 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 Rylee with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Rylee is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
72K
~ 1 in 4,790 Americans
Peak year
2010
3,298 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#125
Tracked since 1980
Census
Rylee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 53,189 people with the first name Rylee, which placed it at #859 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
#859
National first-name rank
People counted
53K
53,189 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
17.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Rylee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rylee is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.0%) and Two or More Races (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 Rylee 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 Rylee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.9% · 42,474
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 3,701
- Two or more races5.6% · 2,966
- Black or African American5.4% · 2,895
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 627
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 526
Gender
Gender distribution for Rylee
Rylee leans heavily female at 92.4% of total registrations, but 5,461 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Rylee as a male name
- Ranked #1,691 in 2024
- 99 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (314 births)
Rylee as a female name
- Ranked #125 in 2024
- 2,229 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2010 (2,984 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rylee leans strongly female. 48,957 people counted with this name were female (92.0%), compared with 4,237 male bearers (8.0%).
Popularity
Rylee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Rylee from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 30,571 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Rylee remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Rylee 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 Rylee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Rylees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Rylee, while District of Columbia, Vermont, Rhode Island recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,368 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Rylee
The name Rylee is a gender-neutral name of English origin, derived from the Old English surname Riley, which itself is believed to have originated from the Old English words "rig" meaning "ridge" and "leah" meaning "meadow" or "clearing." The name Rylee can be traced back to the Middle Ages, with records showing its use as a surname in England as early as the 13th century.
While the exact origin of the name Rylee as a given name is unclear, it is thought to have emerged as a variant of the more traditional names Riley and Ryleigh in the late 20th century. One of the earliest recorded uses of Rylee as a given name can be found in the 1970s, likely influenced by the growing popularity of unique and unconventional baby names during that time period.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Rylee, although many of them may have used it as a surname or middle name rather than a first name. One notable example is Rylee Batt, an Australian para-athlete who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, winning a silver medal in the women's javelin throw F38 event.
Another historical figure with the name Rylee is Rylee McGraw, a 19th-century American outlaw and gunslinger who was active in the American Old West during the latter half of the 1800s. Records show that Rylee McGraw was involved in several bank robberies and shootouts with law enforcement before eventually being killed in a gunfight in 1887.
In the world of literature, Rylee Mackenzie is the protagonist of a series of young adult novels written by Canadian author Kelley Armstrong, which follow the adventures of a teenage girl who discovers she has supernatural abilities.
Moving to the realm of sports, Rylee Steele was a professional baseball player from the United States who played as a catcher in the Negro Leagues during the 1940s and 1950s. Steele was known for his defensive skills behind the plate and was considered one of the top catchers in the Negro Leagues during his career.
Finally, in the field of music, Rylee Walker is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has released several critically acclaimed albums in the genres of folk and Americana. Walker's unique blend of traditional and contemporary styles has earned him praise from both critics and fellow musicians alike.
People
Rylee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Rylee 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
Rylee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Rylee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 71,554 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Rylee 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 4,790 US residents.
Is Rylee a common name?
We classify Rylee as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 72,330 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Rylee most popular?
The single biggest year for Rylee was 2010, when 3,298 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Rylee is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Rylee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 53,189 people with the name Rylee, or 17.61 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #859 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 Rylee 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 Rylee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Rylee leans strongly female. 48,957 people counted with this name were female (92.0%), compared with 4,237 male bearers (8.0%). 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 Rylee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Rylee is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (7.0%) and Two or More Races (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 Rylee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Rylee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.9% (42,474 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 Rylee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Rylee a female name?
Yes, 92.4% of people registered as Rylee 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 Rylee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Rylee 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 Rylee 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 Rylee as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Rylee on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.