Reed

“Red” — Old English origin

Boy's name · #419 in the US (2025) · Trending

Reed is climbing: on the charts since 1881, it is ranked #419 in 2025, with about 770 boys given the name last year. Roughly 36,000 have carried it all-time. Together with its spelling variant Reid (#293), Reed would rank around #190 with about 1,900 births last year — the newborns split about 60/40 between Reid and Reed.

Around the world: about 1 in 5,100 boys in Canada (2024).

Appears in 2020-2025 birth records of 43 states. See the full state-by-state map on this page.

Famous Reeds

Reed Hastings — American entrepreneur and education philanthropist
Reed Diamond — American actor
Reed Hadley — American actor (1911–1974)
Reed Birney — American actor
Reed Owen Smoot — United States Senator and LDS Apostle (1862–1941)

In stories & tradition

Reed (Mister Fantastic) — Fantastic Four
Reed Richards — The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Reed Garrett — CSI: NY

What Reeds become

Among 184 notable people named Reed:

Sports figures appear 1.72× more often than among typical names — e.g. Reed Sheppard, American basketball player.

Similar names: Reid · Hank · Rio · Cade · Creed · Rylan

Browse more boy names — popularity, trends and eras for 5,700+ American names, free.

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