Rea

Spellings & scripts●

Locally spelled Rhea in GR Greece and Ρεα in CY Cyprus.

Spellings marked ● are how people bearing the name write it in our records; ○ marks a model's transliteration. Click a spelling to open its page.

Meaning & origin●

Attested across 3 languages in the etymology graph.

Languages●

Language is read off each record's context, not declared by the bearer; a share is of all records for this spelling.

Other names spelled this way◐

Rea is also recorded as 6 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

• Spanish surname179K records spelled Rea8 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, United States

  Languages: Spanish, Portuguese

  Also written Réa, Reä, ́rea, Reå, Reà

• a separate surname12K records spelled Rea2 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Ecuador, United Kingdom, Italy

  Also written Réa

• Macedonian given name5.8K records spelled Rea13 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in North Macedonia, United States, Croatia, Bulgaria

  Languages: Macedonian, Croatian, Bulgarian

  Also written Реа, Reea, Reá, Réa

• Albanian surname5.5K records spelled Rea4 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in United States, Albania

  Also written Řeå, Reã, Rêà

• Italian surname5.0K records spelled Rea6 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Italy, United States, Philippines, United Kingdom

  Also written Réà, Reä, Rèá, Rêä, Réa

• Indonesian surname4.1K records spelled Rea3 spellings in the group

  Most recorded in Indonesia, Philippines, United States, Ecuador

  Languages: Indonesian, Malay

  Also written Rëâ

68 further groups record this spelling and are not listed here.

Grouping is the name graph's, not a register's: two spellings join a group when the evidence links them, so a group is a claim about the records rather than about the people.

Other recorded senses●

Rea is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.

• In English, local surname from residence near a stream; from OE ēa 'water, stream'; first attested Ralph de la Reye 1279 RH (O)

  as a name·A Dictionary of English Surnames

• In Swedish, Rea (Rhea) är i den grekiska mytologin dotter till Uranos och Gaia, syster och maka till titanen Kronos samt moder till bl.a. Zeus. Namnets betydelse är oviss. I den finlands svenska almanackan 8 april.

  as a name·Förnamn i Sverige. Kortfattat namnlexikon

• In Italian, oriundo de Rea; nome ligado a senda, viela ou bosque virgem

  as a name·Dicionário dos sobrenomes italianos

• In German, ) Rhea: weibl. Vom., der au f eine

  as a name·DUDEN Lexikon der Vornamen

• Corriente, arroyo

  as a name·25,000 nombres de bebé. La mejor guía para escoger el nombre adecuado

Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.

Over time●

US SSA — National Baby Names (1880–present) — 125 years between 1892–2025. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

• Samuel Reab. 1855USAmerican engineer (1855–1929)
• Walter Rea, 1st Baron Reab. 1873GBBritish politician (1873-1948)
• Marvel Reab. 1901USactress from the United States
• Peggy Reab. 1921USAmerican actress (1921–2011)
• Stephen Reab. 1946GBIrish actor
• Chris Reab. 1951GBEnglish male singer-songwriter and guitarist (1951–2025)
• Raffaella Reab. 1982ITItalian actress
• Jonathan Reab. 1987GBNorthern Irish motorcycle racer
• Colin Reab. 1990USAmerican baseball player (born 1990)
• Glen Reab. 1994IEIrish association football player

The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).

Evidence●

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 509 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Rea?

We estimate roughly 32 thousand people bear Rea (counting its spellings and scripts) across 9 countries in our records.

In which country does Rea have the most bearers?

We estimate about 15 thousand people bear Rea in the United States, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled rea.

Where is Rea most common?

Measured as a share of residents rather than as a count, Rea is densest in Ecuador — about 1 in 1.5 thousand people — even though United States holds more of our records for it.

How common is Rea compared with other names?

In Ecuador, Rea is the 937th most common surname of 36,085 surnames recorded there.

What does the name Rea mean?

Recorded meaning: (i) a different form of Rye; (ii) a shortened form of McRea