Arley
A masculine name of obscure origin, possibly derived from a surname.
Name Census estimates that about 2,732 living Americans carry the first name Arley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 80.5% of registrations being male. The average person named Arley today is around 30 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Arley births was 2019 (119 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Arley. 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 Arley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
2.7K
~ 1 in 125,459 Americans
Peak year
2019
119 babies that year
Average age
30
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,055
Tracked since 1884
Census
Arley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,412 people with the first name Arley, which placed it at #6,605 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
#6,605
National first-name rank
People counted
2.4K
2,412 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Arley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arley is White at 49.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (43.4%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). 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 Arley 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 Arley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.3% · 1,188
- Hispanic or Latino43.4% · 1,046
- Two or more races2.7% · 66
- Black or African American2.7% · 64
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 27
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 21
Gender
Gender distribution for Arley
Arley leans heavily male at 80.5% of total registrations, but 864 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Arley as a male name
- Ranked #2,055 in 2024
- 73 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2012 (90 births)
Arley as a female name
- Ranked #4,286 in 2024
- 33 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (36 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Arley on both sides of the split. Of the 2,414 people counted with this name, 1,769 were male (73.3%) and 645 were female (26.7%).
Popularity
Arley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Arley from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 875 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Arley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Arley 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 Arley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Arleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 17 states and territories. California, Texas, West Virginia recorded the most babies named Arley, while Minnesota, Kansas, Florida recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 58 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Arley
The name Arley is of Old English origin, derived from the words "ærn" meaning "house" and "leah" meaning "meadow" or "clearing." It dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD. The name was initially used as a place name, referring to a meadow or clearing near a house or settlement.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Arley can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, a medieval survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror. The entry mentions "Ardelege" or "Ardelie," which is believed to be an early spelling variation of the name Arley.
In the Middle Ages, the name Arley was predominantly used as a surname, referring to people who lived in or originated from a place called Arley. However, over time, it transitioned into a given name, particularly in England and parts of the United States.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Arley was Arley Armstrong (1899-1962), an American baseball player who played for the Philadelphia Athletics and the Washington Senators in the 1920s and 1930s.
Another prominent figure was Arley Munson (1899-1957), an American diplomat and ambassador to New Zealand from 1949 to 1952, during the Truman administration.
In the literary world, Arley Brent (1890-1963) was an American author and journalist known for his novels and short stories set in the American West.
Arley Bjork (1903-1989) was a Swedish-American engineer and inventor who held numerous patents, including those for the first self-regulating aircraft engine and a method for producing synthetic rubber.
Arley Dougherty (1905-1995) was an American baseball player who played for the New York Giants in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
While the name Arley has been more prevalent in the United States and parts of the United Kingdom, its roots can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, originating as a place name before evolving into a given name over centuries.
People
Arley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Arley 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
Arley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Arley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,732 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Arley 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 125,459 US residents.
Is Arley a common name?
We classify Arley as "Rare". It ranks above 94.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,420 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Arley most popular?
The single biggest year for Arley was 2019, when 119 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Arley is about 30 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Arley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,412 people with the name Arley, or 0.80 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,605 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 Arley 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 Arley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Arley on both sides of the split. Of the 2,414 people counted with this name, 1,769 were male (73.3%) and 645 were female (26.7%). 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 Arley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Arley is White at 49.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (43.4%) and Two or More Races (2.7%). 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 Arley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Arley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.3% (1,188 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 Arley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Arley a male name?
Yes, 80.5% of people registered as Arley in the SSA data are male. 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 Arley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Arley 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 Arley 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 have Arley as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Arley on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.