Reilly

Where Reilly comes from

From Irish Ó Raghallaigh, a surname meaning "descendants of Raghallach".
— Wiktionary's entry for Reilly
  • From a surname
  • 2 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1978
    First appearance
    #8,562 among girls, 6 babies — the first year at least five got the name.
  2. 1991
    Reilly Smith born
    Canadian ice hockey player
  3. 1997
    Reilly Opelka born
    American tennis player
  4. 1997
    Peak, #622
    360 babies named Reilly — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2006
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #1,314.
  6. 2024
    Mostly girls from here
    Until now more boys than girls got the name; from this year it's the other way round, and has stayed that way.
In the dictionary
  • A unisex given name transferred from the surname, of modern usage.
Namesakes
  • Reilly Opelka · American tennis player, born 1997
  • Reilly Smith · Canadian ice hockey player, born 1991
  • Reilly Dolman · Canadian actor, born 1988
  • Reilly Paterson · american-raised Jamaican footballer, born 2000

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.