Ray
Top 1000
About Ray
Simple, short, and cool, Ray gives off retro vibes thanks to its 20th century popularity, and its links to jazzy Ray Charles and Ray-Ban sunglasses. A popular middle name for boys, it is well established as a given name too.
Derived from the Germanic Raymond, it means "wise protector", but it could also be seen as a word name, with ties to nature and science, as in a ray of light, a sun ray, a sting ray, or an X-ray.
The list of noteworthy Rays who have brought glory to their nickname name goes on forever—Bradbury, Romano, Milland (born Alfred), Liotta, and Goulding, to name just a few. Ray might still be short for Raymond or a more unusual formal name such as Rainier or Rayford, but it can also stand on its own.
In the US, it has seriously declined in use since its 20th century popularity and now sits at the latter end of the charts. At least 300 boys still receive the name each year however, and the longer form Raymond remains in the Top 400.
Pronounced RAY.
As of October 2026, Ray ranked #792 in US births in 2025 SSA, peaked at #49 in 1891, Nameberry popularity #358.
Editor: Pamela Redmond
Sources: US popularity data is from the Social Security Administration. Meanings and origins are from Nameberry's name references.
Popularity & trends
Data table
| Year | US rank | Births | Per million |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | #728 | 329 | 171.3 |
| 2015 | #713 | 348 | 181.6 |
| 2016 | #753 | 324 | 170.7 |
| 2017 | #769 | 306 | 165.3 |
| 2018 | #728 | 330 | 181.7 |
| 2019 | #736 | 328 | 182.8 |
| 2020 | #725 | 343 | 198.7 |
| 2021 | #843 | 282 | 161.2 |
| 2022 | #762 | 332 | 190.1 |
| 2023 | #765 | 336 | 196.4 |
| 2024 | #779 | 322 | 186.9 |
| 2025 | #792 | 319 | 186.8 |
World rankings
Similar names
These 20 names were selected by our users looking for other names like Ray.
Ray on lists
Famous Rays
- Raymond Albert "Ray" Romano
American actor and comedian
- Ray Toro
American musician and guitarist
- Ray Charles
American musician
- Ray Milland
Welsh actor
- Ray Bradbury
American author
- Ray Edwards
American football player
- Ray Lewis
American football player
- Ray Rice
American football player
- Ray Bolger
American actor known for the Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz
- Stephen "Stevie" Ray Vaughn
American singer,songwriter
- Billy Ray Cyrus
American musician and starred in Disney's Hannah Montana
- Ray Davies
English musician and The Kinks frontman
Ray in pop culture
- Robby Ray Stewart
character in series "Hannah Montana"
- Ray Brower
unseen character in the film "Stand By Me" based on the novella "The Body" by Stephen King
- Ray
character from the "Left Behind" series
- Ray
character in series one and two of "Girls" (Lena Dunham)
- Ray Brennan
from TV series "Las Vegas"
- Ray Stantz
character in Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, played by Dan Aykroyd
- Ray Crisp/Carter
character in Marvel Universe
- Ray Bronson
from movie "I Know What You Did Last Summer"
- Ray Wilkins
character from Scary Movie
- Ray Palmer aka Atom
character in DC Universe
- Ray
character in the film "Hidden"
- Mr. Ray
spotted eagle ray in Pixar's "Finding Nemo" and "Finding Dory"
- Ray Dimeo
awkward nerdy son from TV series 'Speechless'
- Ray
the name of one of the personalities of a character from visual novel game "Mystic Messenger"
- Ray Ferrier
lead character in 2005 film "War of the Worlds"
- Ray
main character in the manga/anime series "The Promised Neverland"