Reese

Did you know?

A few things about Reese you might not know, from US birth records and Wikipedia. Handy for convincing a partner, or a grandparent.

⭐ Famous Reese

Reese Witherspoon

American actress (born 1976)

Choose Reese and your child shares a first name with Reese Witherspoon, an American actress. A ready-made answer when someone asks “Reese, like who?” Reese Witherspoon's Wikipedia article is available in 102 languages, a good sign of just how widely known they are.

Read about Reese Witherspoon on Wikipedia ↗ (opens in a new tab)

Photo: dtstuff9, CC BY-SA 2.0 (opens in a new tab), via Wikimedia Commons

• 👶How commonAbout 1 in every 985 baby girls born in the US in 2025 was named Reese, 1,631 babies in all. In a typical school of 500 kids, your Reese would very likely be the only one.
• 📜HistoryReese has been in use since at least 1880, the first year US birth records were kept. That's 145 years of Reeses, and counting.
• 🏆Best yearIts best year was 2012, when it reached #128.
• 📈Then vs nowReese is 7.4× more common today than it was in 2000. In 2000 it was given to about 1 in 7,294 baby girls; in 2025, about 1 in 985.
• 🍂TrendReese has slipped 47 places over the last five years and now sits at #192. Good news if you want a familiar name that fewer kids will share.
• 📍Where it's lovedReese is most popular in Delaware, where it ranks #98, followed by Idaho (#101) and New Hampshire (#111). It makes the top 1,000 in almost every state.
• ⚖️Boy or girlReese is given to both boys and girls: 77% of the 2,106 babies named Reese in 2025 were girls. That makes it one of the names that truly works for either.
• 💬MeaningReese is a Welsh form of Rhys, which means “ardor, enthusiasm”. Our records link it to German and Welsh roots.
• 🌍OriginReese is the #6 most popular Welsh girl name in the US. That's out of 738 Welsh girl and unisex names in our list.

About the name Reese

Reese is a gender-neutral name of German and Welsh origin meaning “ardor, enthusiasm”. It has 5 letters and 1 syllable, starting with R and ending in “-ese”. US birth records list Reese for girls from 1924 to 2025, in 36 of those 102 years. Its best year was 2012, when it ranked #128 among girl names. In 2025 it ranked #192, with 1,631 babies. Of the 2,106 US babies named Reese in 2025, 77% were girls and 23% were boys.

Origin:German namesWelsh names