Two Chads I grew up with had “Chadwick” as their first name. A third had “Chadley.”
Not necessarily. I had a friend named Tre who was even whiter than I am (and that’s pretty damn white). And again, his family used it because he was the 3rd.
As others have noted, in the past, “Trey” was almost always a nickname, indicating that someone was the third person in his family history to hold a name. If Quentin Edgar Dimwit named his son after himself, that boy would be Quentin Edgar Dimwit Junior. If he had a grandson by that name, the boy would be Quentin Edgar Dimwit III. And Quentin III would be nicknamed “Trey.” Or, in many parts of the South, he’d be called “Trip.”
But over the years, people have forgotten the origins of the name “Trey.” So, while a 50 year old man who’s called “Trey” is undoubtedly named Something Something the Third, that frequently is NOT the case among younger guys with that name. Nowadays, a teenager named Trey may very well have “Trey” on his birth certificate- like as not, his Mom had heard the name and liked the sound of it, without knowing what its connotations used to be.
I’ve heard of Chas and Chuck as a nickname for Charles, but never Chad. 
As an aside, I used to piss off my friend’s mom when I called up and asked to speak to “Chuck”. Everyone else called him Charles except for me. Peppermint Patty anyone?
Restated: T-r-e is the preferred spelling of “Trey” for many American black males, as a name indicating a III or a nickname.
My Imaginary Celebrity Boyfriend Trey Anastasio is somewhere around forty. He is also a III- Ernest Guiseppe Anastasio III. I see why he’d prefer Trey.
A friend of mine has an under-10 nephew nicknamed Trey (or maybe Tre). He is black, and Trey is the second syllable of his first name. I can’t for the life of me remember what his name really is.
My husband and I are considering the Trey if we ever have a little boy. It still sounds good if we yell it at top volume fifteen times. And it goes well with our last name.
Thirteen years and 10 months ago my daughter was named Breanna. We heard it on a TV commercial and liked it on the spot. Musta been a popular commercial, because two of my daughters friends have the same name.
I’m older than 25 (by too far). I can tell you that Chad is not a nickname for Charles. The common ones are Chuck (and Chucker), Charlie and Chaz (the pronounced Chas.) And, if my older sister is any guide, there’s also Stupid.
well im white and my name is trey and im 14 my accual name is Arthur Melvin Kottcamp III
This thread is only 5 years younger than you are.
Welcome to the SDMB, inyaface22. I hope you enjoy your time here.
How did you chance to come across this thread?
I know, I know; he’s fourteen; he’s likely to come across anything he sees. Let’s get our minds out of the gutter…
I can see why you decided to go by Trey.
There are also presumably some Trayvons and other variations known as Tre/Trey.
I knew a guy who was a “fourth” and went exclusively by the name Cuatro (or possibly Quatro, as I never saw it in print).
William Gates III was known as Trey as a kid.
Now people have a lot of other names for him that they mostly don’t use for their kids. At least not on their birth certificates.
This common graffiti from the WWII era, similar to the American “Killroy was here”, was known to the British as “Chad”. Unlike “Killroy”, “Chad” would normally be accompanied by a slogan saying “Wot no …?” (the ellipses being filled in with the name of something missing or, as so often in Britain during the war, in short supply).
I don’t know if “Killroy” was a rip-off of “Chad”, or vice-vera (or if they each arose independently).
Anyway, the point is that in the WWII era in Britain, “Chad” was clearly considered a common enough name or nickname to be suitable for an “everyman” character. It wasn’t something new 25 years before the OP in 2004.
Names do in and out of fashion in a cyclical way. When I was a kid, names like “Emma” and “Emily” were old-lady names. Now, some 50 years later, those names evoke young hotties. In between, they probably became quite rare for a while. (I would check this, and check Chad and Trey etc. too, with the Baby Name Voyager, but it doesn’t seem to be working.)
Nitpick: “Kilroy”.
Is “Trey” ever used as short for “Tremaine”?
I don’t know, but I worked for several years with a guy named Trebor who went by Trey. His name came from his dad’s name backwards.
Are you sure? It’s a (somewhat) common name in Wales (corruption of Trefor/Trevor), and I knew a Hungarian guy named Trebor who said it was an old family name.