Wesley Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin

In this article we'll look at the origin and meaning of the surname Wesley and how popular it is in the United States. We'll also look at the race and ethnic origin of people in the United States who are named Wesley.

Wesley, like all of the names we have data for, is identified by the U.S. Census Bureau as a surname which has more than 100 occurrences in the United States in the Decennial Census survey. The most recent statistics we have for the Wesley surname is from the 2010 census data.

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Where Does Wesley Rank in the Most Common U.S. Names?

According to the data, Wesley is ranked #1,555 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

The Wesley surname appeared 23,135 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 7.84 would have the surname Wesley.

We can also compare 2010 data for Wesley to data from the previous census in 2000. The table below contains all of the statistics for both years in a side-by-side comparison.

2010 2000 Change (%)
Rank 1555 1512 2.80%
Count 23,135 21,734 6.24%
Proportion per 100k 7.84 8.06 -2.77%

Race and Ethnic Origin of People with the Last Name Wesley

We also have some data on the ancestry of people with the surname Wesley.

The below race categories are the modified race categories used in the Census Bureau's population estimates program. All people were categorized into six mutually exclusive racial and Hispanic origin groups: "White only", "Black only", "American Indian and Alaskan Native only", "Asian and Pacific Islander only", "Two or More Races", and "Hispanic".

For the most recent 2010 census data, the race/ethnic origin breakdown for Wesley was:

  • 41.86%, or 9,684 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic White Only".
  • 48.95%, or 11,325 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic Black Only".
  • 0.92%, or 213 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander Only".
  • 2.76%, or 639 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaskan Native".
  • 3.05%, or 706 total occurrences, were "Non-Hispanic of Two or More Races".
  • 2.47%, or 571 total occurrences, were "Hispanic Origin".

Note: Any fields showing (S) means the data was suppressed for privacy so that the data does not in any way identify any specific individuals.

Since we have data from the previous census in 2000, we can also compare the values to see how the popularity of Wesley has changed in the 10 years between the two census surveys.

2010 2000 Change (%)
White 41.86% 44.34% -5.75%
Black 48.95% 48.51% 0.90%
Asian and Pacific Islander 0.92% 0.65% 34.39%
American Indian and Alaskan Native 2.76% 2.54% 8.30%
Two or More Races 3.05% 2.29% 28.46%
Hispanic 2.47% 1.66% 39.23%

Data Source(s)

All of the data on this page is sourced from the Decennial Census survey, from the United States Census Bureau.

Link To or Reference This Page

We spent a lot of time downloading, cleaning, merging, and formatting the data that is shown on the site.

If you found the data or information on this page useful in your research, please use the tool below to properly cite or reference Name Census as the source. We appreciate your support!

  • "Wesley Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin". NameCensus.com. Accessed on April 23, 2024. https://namecensus.com/last-names/wesley-surname-popularity/.

  • "Wesley Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/wesley-surname-popularity/. Accessed 23 April, 2024

  • Wesley Last Name Popularity, Meaning and Origin. NameCensus.com. Retrieved from https://namecensus.com/last-names/wesley-surname-popularity/.