The most used girls' names beginning with R in 2025

R is a broad letter for girls: 12,488 babies across 487 spellings, the fifth-largest set of distinct names in the alphabet. Six R names sit inside the top 100, and the Rose family supplies three of them. Rosie at 1,343, Rose at 666 and Rosa at 470 are separate ONS rows, and Rosalie adds 178 more below the line.

ONS rank (all girls' names)	Name	Babies in 2025	Meaning and origin
24	Rosie	1,343	English pet form of Rose, from Latin rosa
38	Ruby	1,032	The gem, from Latin rubeus, red
67	Rose	666	Disputed: the flower from Latin rosa, or Germanic hrod, fame; the medieval name is Germanic
76	Robyn	611	Feminine spelling of Robin, itself a diminutive of Robert, bright fame
82	Raya	547	Several unrelated names share the spelling, including Hebrew Raya, friend, and Arabic and Bulgarian forms
96	Rosa	470	Latin rosa, the flower, in its Latin and Spanish form
168	River	287	English word name, from Old French riviere
172	Remi	282	French Remy, from the Roman name Remigius, oarsman
172	Romy	282	German pet form of Rosemarie; also read as a feminine of Roman
186	Riley	270	English place name, rye clearing, and separately Irish O Raghallaigh
250	Robin	186	Medieval diminutive of Robert, bright fame; the bird is named after the name
261	Rosalie	178	French from Latin Rosalia, a Roman festival of roses

The most used boys' names beginning with R in 2025

The boys' letter is the third largest in the country, with 23,551 babies across 469 names and ten inside the top 100, matching A for the most of any letter. It is also the youngest-feeling part of the boys' list: Rory, Roman, Reuben, Rowan, Reggie and Ronnie are all inside the top 40, and none of them was there twenty years ago.

ONS rank (all boys' names)	Name	Babies in 2025	Meaning and origin
17	Rory	1,760	Irish and Scottish Ruaidhri, red king
27	Roman	1,420	Latin Romanus, a Roman
29	Reuben	1,412	Hebrew Reuven, behold, a son
30	Rowan	1,398	Two sources: the tree, from Old Norse, and Irish Ruadhan, little red one
37	Reggie	1,312	English pet form of Reginald, Germanic ragin counsel and wald rule
39	Ronnie	1,281	English pet form of Ronald, from Old Norse Rognvaldr, ruler's counsel
79	Rupert	670	German form of Robert, Germanic hrod fame and beraht bright
83	Riley	619	English place name, rye clearing, and separately Irish O Raghallaigh
96	Ralph	541	Old Norse Radulfr, counsel wolf, through Norman French
100	Ruben	527	Spanish and Dutch spelling of Reuben, behold, a son
109	Robin	485	Medieval diminutive of Robert, bright fame; the bird is named after the name
110	River	481	English word name, from Old French riviere

Which R names are rising and which are falling

Climbing

Eight of the ten R names in the boys' top 100 climbed in 2025. Ruben gained 26 places and entered the top 100 as a new entry, Rowan gained 11, Ronnie 10, Rory 7, Reggie 6, Roman 5, Reuben 4 and Rupert 4. No other letter has that many risers. Over ten years Rowan is up 80 places, Rupert 64, Roman 61 and Rory 57.

Slipping

The girls' side is quieter and mixed. Rose fell 8 places and Rosa 2, while Rosie held level and Ruby gained 3. Robyn gained 2 and Raya held its position, though Raya is up 419 places since 2015, the third-largest ten-year rise in the girls' top 100. Among boys only Riley and Ralph fell, by 3 and 2 places, and Riley is down 43 since 2015.

What the published change columns cannot tell you

River, Remi, Romy, Riley for girls, Rosalie, Rehmat, Rae, Remy and Ryan are all outside the top 100 and have counts only. River is a useful example: it appears in both lists, 287 girls and 481 boys, and neither entry has a published change figure, so nothing can be said here about which direction it is moving in.

How big a letter R really is

R is seventh for girls and third for boys by babies named, and fifth and third by distinct names. That combination, large and varied on both sides, is rare. Its concentration is the lowest of any boys' letter: Rory takes just 7 per cent of the total, so the letter has no single dominant name at all.

The reason R feels different from other large letters is that its growth is spread across many names rather than concentrated in one. Rory, Roman, Reuben, Rowan, Reggie and Ronnie each sit between 1,281 and 1,760 babies, six names of almost identical size clustered between ranks 17 and 39. No other letter has a block like that.

Further R names in the published 2025 list

The ONS full list does not stop at the tables above, and the counts stay exact all the way down. For girls the next names in order of use are Rehmat at 166, Rae at 121, Reya at 111, Rhea at 109, Rachel at 106, Romi at 101, Rebecca at 98, Reeva at 97, Rowan at 96, Raven at 90, Rahma at 87, Ruqayyah at 82. For boys they are Remy at 476, Ryan at 374, Raphael at 368, Rudy at 341, Robert at 310, Rio at 305, Rayan at 291, Remi at 274, Rafael at 266, Rafferty at 262, Rayyan at 261, Romeo at 260. Each figure is the exact number of babies registered with that exact spelling during 2025, taken from the ONS full-list table rather than from the top 100. The letter carries 487 different girls' names and 469 different boys' names in the published data altogether, and any name given to two or fewer babies has been removed from it.

Choosing a R name: what the data changes

If you want a boys' name with momentum behind it, R is where the published data actually supports the claim, because eight of its top-100 names have official upward moves. If you want the opposite, the same fact is a warning: a name climbing this fast will be more common by the time your child starts school than it is today.

Baby names starting with R: girls and boys