Riley - Meaning of Riley

What does Riley mean?

[ 2 syll. ri-ley, ril-ey ] The baby girl name Riley is also used as a boy name, though it is more popular for girls. It is pronounced as RIYLiy- †. Riley has its origins in the Old English language and it is used largely in English. The meaning of Riley is 'rye field'. It is derived from ryge which means 'rye' ; leah 'wood, clearing, meadow'. It represents the transferred use of the geographic name and the surname as a given name. See Riley for more information.

What are the Variant Forms of Riley?

The name Riley is used to a great extent; it has 38 forms that are used in English and foreign languages. English forms of the name include Raleigh, Raley, Reileigh, Reiley, Reilley, Reily, Rhiley, Rhylee, Rhyley, Rieley, Rielle, Rielly, Riely, Rilea, Rileah, Rilee, Rileigh, Rili, Rilie, Rilley, Rillie, Rily, Rilye, Ryelana, Ryely, Ryesen, Rylea, Ryleigh, Ryley, and Rysen. Other English forms include the spelling variants Reilly, Ryelee, Rylee, Rylie, and Rylly. The Irish Rilo is a form of Riley that is used in foreign languages.

See also the related form, the name Briley.

See also the related categories, wood (forest), english, meadow, and geographic.

Riley is very popular as a baby girl name, and it is also perceived as trendy. The name has been growing in popularity since the 1980s; prior to that, it was of only infrequent use. Its usage peaked modestly in 2016 with 0.370% of baby girls being named Riley. It was #22 in rank then. In 2018, it ranked at #28 with a usage of 0.324%, and it was the most popular among all girl names in its family. Riley was twice as popular as the 2nd most popular name, Rylee, in 2018. Although Riley is used more commonly as a baby girl name today, there was a period prior to 2001 that it was more popular with boys. After 2002, increasingly the name became more popular with baby girls than with boys. In 2017, 5 times more baby girls than boys were given the name Riley.

Baby names that sound like Riley include Reilley, Reilly, Reily, Rielly, Riely, Rylee, Raele, Raelle, Rahel, Rahil, Raleigh, Raley, Raylee, Raylie, Rayly, Reiley, Reli, Rella, Rhiley, and Rhylee.

† Pronunciation for Riley: R as in "race (R.EY.S)" ; IY as in "eat (IY.T)" ; L as in "lay (L.EY)"

More about famous people named Riley:

Riley Popularity Charts

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