How Many People Are Named Read?
An estimated 223 people in the United States have the first name Read. It is almost exclusively a male name. The average bearer is 47 years old, and Read peaked in popularity in 1949 with 14 births that year.
Below you will find a full statistical profile of Read as a first name in the United States, including gender data, a year-by-year popularity timeline going back to 1880, a decade breakdown, and state-by-state birth registrations. You can also check how many people share the full name Read paired with any surname.
Estimated Living Americans
223
About 1 in 1,537,015 people in the U.S.
Rarity
Very Rare
Predicted Gender
Male
100.0% confidence
Average Age
47
years old
Peak Year
1949
14 births
Total Registered
308
since 1880
Gender Distribution for Read
Read is almost exclusively a male name. Out of 308 total births registered, 100.0% were male.
Read as a male name
Ranked #13,603 in 2014
5 male births in 2014
Peak: 1949 (14 births)
Read: Popularity Over Time
SSA records for Read span from the 1910s to the 2010s, covering 11 decades of naming data. The most popular decade for this name was the 1990s, when 53 babies were registered. Read has declined significantly from its peak in the 1990s. Recent registrations are a fraction of what they were at the name's height.
Read by Decade
How has Read tracked across different eras? The table below groups all SSA birth registrations into 10-year periods, with separate male and female counts. The colored bar shows each decade's share relative to the peak.
Read + Last Name Combinations
How many people share a full name with Read as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Names Similar to Read
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
Read: Questions and Answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Read?
We estimate approximately 223 people named Read are alive in the United States today. This is based on SSA birth records from 1880 to 2024, adjusted for mortality using CDC life tables. About 1 in 1,537,015 Americans share this first name.
Is Read a common name?
Read is classified as "Very Rare" and is more popular than 75.6% of all first names in the SSA database. A total of 308 births have been registered with this name since 1880.
When was Read most popular?
Read reached peak popularity in 1949, when 14 babies were given this name. The average age of a living person named Read is approximately 47 years old, reflecting when the name was most commonly given.
Is Read a male name?
Read is predominantly male. 100.0% of people with this name are male. See the gender breakdown above for full details.
How many Read Smiths are there?
To find how many people share a specific full name, we combine first name and surname frequencies. Try: Read Smith, Read Johnson, Read Williams. You can also search any combination on our homepage.
Where does this data come from?
Our estimates use Social Security Administration birth records (1880 to 2024), adjusted for survival using CDC 2023 life tables broken down by sex. The U.S. population figure (342,754,338) is from the Census Bureau's July 2025 estimate. Full methodology.
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