Rey

loc · English · Latin script

Recorded as a male name· opposite-gender records fall within measured source noise

Rey is a name, with more bearers in India than in any other country. It appears chiefly in English and Spanish, written in the Latin script. Recorded meaning: (i) medieval nickname for regal behavior or pageant kingship, from Old French rey/roy ‘king’; (ii) nickname for a shy or retiring person, from Middle English ray ‘female roe deer’; (iii) a different f.

rarermore common
  • INIndia1 in 387◐
  • ESSpain1 in 1.3K
  • PYParaguay1 in 1.7K

carrying the name, one hue, darker where it is more common. Hover a country for its figure.

≈3.6M ●

across 12 countries

Sources
331 ●

925K records

Official registry-verified

1 in 387 ◐

India

Spellings & scripts●

RayLatin · Spanish●63K records

Locally spelled Ray in IN India, US United States, AR Argentina and 9 more.

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●

Derivation of Rey: each step is the form the one above it came from.
Rey
  1. Old Frenchrey/roy●
  2. Middle Englishray●

(i) medieval nickname for regal behavior or pageant kingship, from Old French rey/roy ‘king’; (ii) nickname for a shy or retiring person, from Middle English ray ‘female roe deer’; (iii) a different form of Rye; (iv) a different form of Wray

Sources 1

  • Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

Attested across 17 languages in the etymology graph.

Where in the world●

Sorted by bearers counted by national registers, records where none counts.

Where Rey is recorded, by country
CountryMost common spellingSources
IN India—3,425,366△9.6K rec.1 in 3873.4MRay60
US United States—133,171320K rec.1 in 2.5K133KRay331
ES Spain—38,60358K rec.1 in 1.3K39KRey194
AR Argentina—15,895110K rec.1 in 2.9K16KRay117
PY Paraguay—10,2081.4K rec.——Rey23
MX Mexico—8,78897K rec.—136Rey145
BR Brazil—5,36320K rec.—11KRay111
CH Switzerland—4,547△566 rec.1 in 1.8K4.5KRay51
FR France—2,8420 rec.1 in 24K2.8K—4
CO Colombia—2,64327K rec.—17Ray134
DO Dominican Republic—2,0754.1K rec.——Rey33
PH Philippines—1,867146K rec.——Ray130

Roughly 3.4M people in India bear this name (about 1 in 387). Estimates project the name's share of our records onto national population, so each is only as good as the record base beside it — the Basis column gives that base; rows marked △ rest on fewer records than the estimate itself and are order-of-magnitude at best.

Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table. How that works.

Languages●

  • English115K13%
  • Spanish44K5%
  • Portuguese1.9K1%
  • Turkish5481%
  • Romanian3531%
Show as table
Languages in which the name is recorded
NameRecordsNote
English115,18513%
Spanish43,9685%
Portuguese1,9461%
Turkish5481%
Romanian3531%

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◐

Rey is also recorded as 8 other names, grouped separately because the records behind them do not connect to the one described above.

  • English given name266K records spelled Rey59 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, Canada, St. Kitts & Nevis, United Kingdom

    Languages: English, German, Dutch

    Also written Rëy, Řëý, Rêÿ, Rèy, Réy

  • French surname189K records spelled Rey24 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in France

    Also written Réÿ, Réy, Rëy, Řěÿ, Rëý

  • Indonesian given name27K records spelled Rey3 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Indonesia, Malaysia

    Languages: Indonesian, Malay

    Also written 'Rey

  • a separate name16K records spelled Rey3 spellings in the group

    Also written Réy

  • Thai surname5.0K records spelled Rey64 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Thailand, India, United States, United Kingdom

    Languages: Thai, Lao

    Also written Ray, Re, Ree, เรย์, เรย

  • Italian surname2.0K records spelled Rey4 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in United States, India, United Kingdom, San Marino

    Also written Ray, Ṙêy, Ŕäý

  • Turkish surname1.8K records spelled Rey19 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in India, United States, Türkiye, United Kingdom

    Languages: Turkish, Azerbaijani

    Also written Ray, Řye, Réy, Réý, Råy

  • Polish surname1.6K records spelled Rey178 spellings in the group

    Most recorded in Poland, India, Russia, United States

    Languages: Polish, Russian, Croatian

    Also written Рей, Rej, Rai, Ray, Raj

82 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●

Rey 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, Either see Ray, or from Spanish rey ‘king’, meaning ‘servant of the king’ or a royal nickname.

    as a nameEncyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]

  • In English, Spanish 'king'

    as a nameBaby names, 25,350 baby names nicknames for your family, friends pets, including the top 100 names, 2,000 most popular…

  • In cdo, as or to speak of, to say, to call, diligent, it means, it is called, (iu-di), addressing him, said, (gaeng-igong)

    as a wordDictionary of the Foochow Dialect

  • ISO 639-3 language code for Reyesano.

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

  • In Portuguese, obsolete spelling of rei

    as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)

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●

02040601950200041 · 2002

Show as table
Rey in INEC — Visualizador de Nombres y Apellidos, per-token query API (1900–2024), Ecuador, 1903–2024
Yearrecords
19031
19041
19052
19071
19081
19092
19111
19132
19143
19151
19164
19171
19181
19192
19204
19211
19222
19231
19242
19254
19262
19275
19281
19293
19302
19315
19325
19336
19342
19356
19364
19376
19393
19402
19417
19426
19437
19448
19456
194611
19479
194810
194911
19508
195114
195211
195314
19545
195511
19569
195713
19587
19597
196010
196117
19628
196316
196415
196511
196618
196719
196818
196910
197017
197118
197222
197316
197416
197519
197619
197727
197825
197921
198025
198122
198222
19838
198432
198523
198622
198731
198831
198922
199027
199129
199223
199326
199417
199535
199624
199721
199838
199935
200034
200133
200241
200333
200421
200518
200640
200727
200825
200937
201029
201117
201220
201321
201423
201520
201620
201731
201814
201925
202020
202115
202217
202318
20247

EC INEC — Visualizador de Nombres y Apellidos, per-token query API (1900–2024) — 118 years between 1903–2024. One register's own figures, never a sum across registers: two registers counting the same people would double them.

Notable people with this name●

1400160018002000Mikołaj Rej, b. 1505Ernest Reyer, b. 1823Jean Rey, b. 1902Fernando Rey, b. 1917Antonia Rey, b. 1927Micheline Calmy-Rey, b. 1945Thierry Rey, b. 1959José Manuel Rey, b. 1975Alberto Ammann, b. 1978Rey Manaj, b. 1997
  • Mikołaj Rejb. 1505UAnot in their usual namePolish poet and prose writer, politician and musician of the Renaissance (1505-1569)
  • Ernest Reyerb. 1823FRnot in their usual nameFrench opera composer and music critic (1823–1909)
  • Jean Reyb. 1902BEBelgian politician (1902–1983)
  • Fernando Reyb. 1917ESSpanish actor (1917–1994)
  • Antonia Reyb. 1927CUCuban-American actress
  • Micheline Calmy-Reyb. 1945CHmember of the Swiss Federal Council
  • Thierry Reyb. 1959FRFrench judoka
  • José Manuel Reyb. 1975VEVenezuelan footballer
  • Alberto Ammannb. 1978ARnot in their usual nameArgentine actor
  • Rey Manajb. 1997ALAlbanian 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●

Attested in 77 sources across 39 countries.

Official registers attesting Rey
CountryRegisterYearCountRank
ES SpainINE — Apellidos más frecuentes (Padrón Municipal)—39K#122
ES SpainINE — Padrón per-token widgets (current living counts, given + apellidos)—39K#122
AR ArgentinaRENAPER — Apellidos (person counts, national)—16K—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex202011K#2,240
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 202020208.1K#4,216
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 201020108.1K#4,403
US United StatesCensus Bureau — Surname Frequency 200020007.3K#4,450
CH SwitzerlandBFS — Familiennamen der Wohnbevölkerung (surnames)20244.5K#129
FR FranceINSEE — Fichier des noms de famille (1891–2000)19912.8K—
US United StatesCensus Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex2020501#2,240
CR Costa RicaTSE — electoral roll (padrón) names—486#651
US United StatesSSA — National Baby Names (1880–present)2025262—

Reference works 6

  • Dictionary of American Family Names
  • Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
  • Wikipedia surname tokens
  • Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
  • jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
  • Cognomix.it (Nomix s.r.l.) — Italian surname origin dictionary

These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.

Register rows as of the 2026-09-12 data build · 659 rows in the corpus for this spelling.

Frequently asked questions

How common is the name Rey?
We estimate roughly 3.6 million people bear Rey (counting its spellings and scripts) across 12 countries in our records.
In which country does Rey have the most bearers?
We estimate about 3.4 million people bear Rey in India, more than in any other country in our records, where it is most often spelled ray.
Where is Rey most common?
Rey is densest in India, where the national register counts about 1 in 387 people carrying it.
How common is Rey compared with other names?
In Panama, Rey is the 226th most common surname of 38,507 surnames recorded there.
What does the name Rey mean?
Recorded meaning: (i) medieval nickname for regal behavior or pageant kingship, from Old French rey/roy ‘king’; (ii) nickname for a shy or retiring person, from Middle English ray ‘female roe deer’; (iii) a different f…
Query this name via API
curl https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/rey

The same payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. Rate-limited for casual use. Bulk access and licensing.

About this data

● measured from records◐ inferred from the name graph○ machine-generated

Data snapshot . Figures are rebuilt periodically and will change.

Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.

Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.

Cite this page Mondonomo, “Rey” — the 226th most common surname in Panama. Data snapshot 2026-09-12.

See how Rey parses inside a full name →