Meaning and background
The story behind Reilly
Reilly comes from an Irish surname Anglicized from Ó Raghailligh. Behind the Name traces it to the personal name Raghailleach and explicitly leaves that name's meaning unknown. That is a useful limit: a pleasing English gloss should not be substituted merely because Reilly is familiar. For a dog, a family connection can provide a complete reason for the choice without needing the unresolved older name to have a definite translation.
- Origin
- From Irish Ó Raghailligh and the personal name Raghailleach, whose meaning is unknown. Source
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Everyday moments“Reilly, come here!”
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About Reilly
Recorded as a dog’s name
Reilly appears in 7 dog licence records in the 2026 New York City dataset.
How to read this count
These records cover New York City and may count the same dog in more than one licence period. They are not a national popularity ranking.
Pronunciation and rhythm
/ɹaɪli/
US English sound sequence, converted from the CMU dictionary. Stress marks are shown separately.
Stress on the first syllable in the recorded US readings.
View dictionary notation
/ɹaɪli/ · primary stress on syllable 1R AY1 L IY0
These are US dictionary readings. Personal, regional and other language pronunciations may differ.
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Sources and research notes (2)
- New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene NYC Dog Licensing Dataset — extract_year 2026 — Dog licence periods, not unique dogs; NYC only. No owner-level fields retrieved.
- Carnegie Mellon University / CMU Sphinx maintainers CMU US English Pronouncing Dictionary — US English dictionary readings; not owner-specific or exhaustive multilingual pronunciation
References support the individual facts shown. A source link does not mean the entire profile has been verified.