boy's name
Trey
TRAY
- Origin English
- Gender Boy
- Syllables 1
- Letters 4
- Popularity Top 1000 (US)
- Births on record 43,228
the United States
#889
2025 births
Trey means three, and it is a card and dice word — the trey is the three-spot, which is why the name attached itself to sons who were the third to carry a family name.
- Trey is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 1999, when 1,803 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 12,325 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1948.
- 1 syllable, with the stress on syllable 1.
Trey over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1940s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1940s | 6 |
| 1950s | 154 |
| 1960s | 727 |
| 1970s | 1,104 |
| 1980s | 3,421 |
| 1990s | 12,671 |
| 2000s | 13,902 |
| 2010s | 6,413 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 2,175 |
What Trey means
Trey means three. It names the number rather than describing a quality, and it entered use through the gaming sense rather than through counting, and it entered English through dice and playing cards.
Where Trey comes from
Trey is the Old French treis, three, from the Latin tres, and in English it named the three-spot on dice and playing cards from the fourteenth century. Its use as a name is American and follows from the suffix III: a third-generation namesake becomes the trey. The same Latin gives trio, triple, trellis and trivial — the trivium being where three roads meet, and so a place of common talk.
Trey in use
Trey peaked in the United States in 1999, when 1,803 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. It now ranks 889th in the United States on 269 births and 2110th in England and Wales on 12, across 43,228 lifetime births in three of the seven markets we track. England and Wales ran its own peak of 64 births in 2011, and our records carry the name from 1948.
How popular is Trey?
In 2025, Trey was given to 269 babies in the United States, ranking #889 that year. It is a well-established, commonly used name.
Where Trey is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
Names that peaked alongside Trey
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Trey also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Trey over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
Trey in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
Sibling names for Trey
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Trey — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Trey
What does the name Trey mean?
Three — the Old French treis, and the three-spot on dice and cards.
Why is it used for a third son?
A third-generation namesake carries the suffix III, and becomes the trey.
Is trivial related?
Yes — the trivium is where three roads meet, and so a place of common talk.
How popular is Trey?
889th in the United States, down from a 1999 peak of 1,803 births.
Is Trey a girl's or a boy's name?
Trey is given almost entirely to boys in birth records.
How many syllables are in Trey?
Trey has 1 syllable.
Is Trey a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Trey currently ranks #828 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.