Amberly
Of English origin, meaning "from the solitary place".
Name Census estimates that about 6,404 living Americans carry the first name Amberly. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Amberly today is around 27 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Amberly births was 1991 (194 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Amberly. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Amberly with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
6.4K
~ 1 in 53,522 Americans
Peak year
1991
194 babies that year
Average age
27
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,737
Tracked since 1960
Census
Amberly in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,158 people with the first name Amberly, which placed it at #3,828 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#3,828
National first-name rank
People counted
5.2K
5,158 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
61.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Amberly
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amberly is White at 61.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.7%) and Black (4.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Amberly described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Amberly at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White61.1% · 3,152
- Hispanic or Latino26.7% · 1,377
- Black or African American4.0% · 208
- Two or more races4.0% · 205
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.0% · 154
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.2% · 62
Popularity
Amberly: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Amberly from the 1960s through to the 2020s, spanning 7 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,472 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1990s peak, Amberly remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Amberly by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Amberly during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Amberlys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 30 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Amberly, while Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 132 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Amberly
The name Amberly is an English given name with origins dating back to the Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old English words "aemere" and "leah," which together mean "amber clearing" or "amber meadow." This suggests that the name may have initially been used as a descriptive term for a particular location or settlement surrounded by amber-hued fields or forests.
In the 12th century, the name appeared in various historical records and documents, often spelled as "Ambreleia" or "Aemyrleah." One of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a comprehensive survey of landholdings and property ownership commissioned by William the Conqueror.
During the Middle Ages, the name Amberly was relatively uncommon but held a certain degree of prestige among the nobility and gentry. One notable individual who bore this name was Lady Amberly de Warenne, a wealthy landowner and patron of the arts who lived in the late 13th century.
In the 16th century, the name gained some popularity among Puritan families in England, who were drawn to its biblical connotations of amber, which was a precious substance mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel. One of the most famous individuals with this name from this era was Amberly Winthrop, a prominent Puritan minister and one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.
Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the name Amberly remained relatively rare but continued to be used sporadically among English families. One notable figure from this period was Amberly Fairfax, an English soldier and explorer who served in the British Army during the French and Indian War in North America in the mid-1700s.
In the 19th century, the name experienced a resurgence in popularity, particularly among upper-class families in Britain and the United States. One of the most famous individuals with this name during this time was Amberly Vanderbilt, a prominent American socialite and philanthropist who was a member of the wealthy Vanderbilt family.
Another notable figure from this era was Amberly Nightingale, a British nurse and social reformer who played a crucial role in improving healthcare standards and establishing professional nursing practices in the mid-19th century.
People
Amberly + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Amberly as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Amberly: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Amberly?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 6,404 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Amberly going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 53,522 US residents.
Is Amberly a common name?
We classify Amberly as "Rare". It ranks above 97% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 6,626 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Amberly most popular?
The single biggest year for Amberly was 1991, when 194 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Amberly is about 27 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Amberly in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,158 people with the name Amberly, or 1.71 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,828 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Amberly in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Amberly?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Amberly appears almost entirely female. Of the 5,162 people counted with this name, 99.8% were female and only a very small share were male. The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Amberly?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Amberly is White at 61.1%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (26.7%) and Black (4.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Amberly most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Amberly in the 2020 Census, accounting for 61.1% (3,152 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Amberly in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Amberly a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Amberly in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Amberly still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Amberly in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Amberly can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people are called Amberly?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.