Grey
Pronounced G R EY1 (ARPABET)
- 1 syllable
- Peaked 2021
- 140 years in use
- 2 spellings
How popular is Grey?
Grey is a boys' name, and first appears in 1885. It has been given to 12,578 children — the 1,019th most common boys' name on record.
It is climbing hard: roughly twice as many births in the past decade as in the one before it. Its best single year was 2021, when 529 children were given it.
Two other spellings are counted in that total — Gray and Graye — because they are pronounced identically.
Spelling variants
These spellings sound identical to Grey and are counted together with it, which is why the totals here are higher than a single-spelling count.
- Gray
- Graye
Characteristics
- 1 syllable
Phonetic detail
- Pronunciations:
- G R EY1
- Stress pattern:
- 1
- Syllables:
- 1
Stress digits mark unstressed (0), primary (1) and secondary (2) syllables.
Names like Grey
Same first letter and syllable count, peaking around the same time.
Sibling names for Grey
Names from the same era with a matching rhythm but a different initial.
Frequently asked questions
- How popular is the name Grey?
- Grey ranks 1,019th among boys' names in US records, with 12,578 births since 1885. Over the past decade it accounts for 4,639.
- Is Grey a unisex name?
- No. Grey is recorded almost entirely as a boys' name; births to the other gender are too few to register as a share.
- When was Grey most popular?
- 2021, when 529 children were given the name. It has been in use for 140 years and is still recorded as of 2024.
- How else is Grey spelled?
- Gray, Graye. All of these sound the same and are counted together in the totals on this page.