Audley
A masculine name derived from an English place name meaning "meadow lea".
Name Census estimates that about 250 living Americans carry the first name Audley. It is a predominantly male name (99.3% of registrations). The average person named Audley today is around 62 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Audley births was 1924 (32 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Audley. 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 Audley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
250
~ 1 in 1,371,017 Americans
Peak year
1924
32 babies that year
Average age
62
years old
1998 SSA rank
#5,142
Tracked since 1891
Census
Audley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 795 people with the first name Audley, which placed it at #14,731 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
#14,731
National first-name rank
People counted
795
795 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
74.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Audley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Audley is Black at 74.1%. The next largest groups are White (20.6%) and Hispanic (2.5%). 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 Audley 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 Audley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American74.1% · 589
- White20.6% · 164
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 20
- Two or more races2.0% · 16
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Audley
Out of the 699 babies given the name Audley since 1880, 99.3% were registered as male. The name sits firmly on the male side of the spectrum, with only a handful of female registrations across the entire dataset.
Audley as a male name
- Ranked #8,569 in 1998
- 6 male births in 1998
- Peak: 1924 (27 births)
Audley as a female name
- Ranked #5,142 in 1924
- 5 female births in 1924
- Peak: 1924 (5 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Audley leans strongly male. 759 people counted with this name were male (96.0%), compared with 32 female bearers (4.0%).
Popularity
Audley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Audley from the 1890s through to the 1990s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 167 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Audley 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 Audley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Audleys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Audley
The name Audley originated from the Old English language, which was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland from the mid-5th century until the mid-12th century. It is believed to be derived from the Old English word "aud," meaning "wealth" or "prosperity," combined with the suffix "-ley," which refers to a clearing or meadow.
The earliest recorded use of the name Audley can be traced back to the 11th century, when it was used as a place name in Staffordshire, England. The Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of landholdings and population commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086, mentions the village of "Aldidelegh," which is thought to be the modern-day Audley.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Audley was Sir James Audley (c. 1314-1369), an English knight who fought in the Hundred Years' War. He distinguished himself in the Battle of Poitiers in 1356, where he was one of the few knights to remain with the Black Prince, the son of King Edward III, throughout the entire battle.
Another historically significant figure was Thomas Audley (c. 1488-1544), an English lawyer and judge who served as Lord Chancellor of England from 1533 to 1544 during the reign of King Henry VIII. He played a crucial role in the English Reformation and the establishment of the Church of England.
In the 17th century, Mervin Audley (1588-1667) was an English churchman who served as the Bishop of Winchester from 1660 until his death. He was a prominent figure during the English Civil War and was known for his support of the Royalist cause.
A notable literary figure with the name Audley was James Audley (1667-1718), an English poet and playwright who is best known for his satirical works, including "The Jacobite Relics" and "The Babylonish Dialogue."
In more recent times, Audley Erskine Lindop (1920-2014) was a British writer and academic who served as the Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, from 1979 to 1987. He was the author of several books, including "The Poetry of W.B. Yeats" and "The Novels of Thomas Hardy."
People
Audley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Audley 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
Audley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Audley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 250 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Audley 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 1,371,017 US residents.
Is Audley a common name?
We classify Audley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 77.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 699 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Audley most popular?
The single biggest year for Audley was 1924, when 32 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Audley is about 62 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Audley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 795 people with the name Audley, or 0.26 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,731 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 Audley 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 Audley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Audley leans strongly male. 759 people counted with this name were male (96.0%), compared with 32 female bearers (4.0%). 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 Audley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Audley is Black at 74.1%. The next largest groups are White (20.6%) and Hispanic (2.5%). 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 Audley most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Audley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.1% (589 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 Audley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Audley a male name?
Yes, 99.3% of people registered as Audley 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 Audley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Audley 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 Audley 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 the name Audley?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.