Rea vs Reather
American parents have registered 2,063 Reas since 1880, against 917 Reathers. Rea is still ahead, with 24 babies in 2025.
Babies given each name, 1880–2025
Rea Reather
Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.
Who was ahead
Of the 128 years in which either name was published, Rea for 107 years and Reather for 21 years. The lead changed hands 22 times.
- 1892–1898 Rea ahead
- 1902–1905 Reather ahead
- 1912–1914 Rea ahead
- 1915–1925 Reather ahead, apart from one short spell
- 1938–2025 Rea ahead
17 shorter spells of a year or two are folded into the spans above rather than listed separately.
Side by side
| Rea | Reather | |
|---|---|---|
| Total US births | 2,063 | 917 |
| Most in one year | 34 | 37 |
| Babies in 2025 | 24 | under 5 |
| Estimated living today | 1,200 | 200 |
| Median age today | 43 | 77 |
| Peak year | 1958 | 1919 |
| Best rank | 2,073rd girls | 1,242nd girls |
| Rank in 2025 | 5,238th | unranked |
| First recorded | 1892 | 1899 |
| Girls / boys | 1,873 / 190 | 912 / 5 |
A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.
Which name is older
Half of the Reathers alive today are over 77; half the Reas are over 43. That is 34 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.
Where each one is strongest
- Rea New York (8.3×)
- Reather South Carolina (24.7×), North Carolina (10.4×), Georgia (8.5×)
How much commoner the name is in that state than it is nationally, from births recorded since 1910.
Compare something else
Related comparisons
Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Rea and Reather.