Blakeney
From the Old English words "blaec" meaning "black" and "ey" meaning "island".
Name Census estimates that about 29 living Americans carry the first name Blakeney. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Blakeney today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Blakeney births was 1989 (5 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Blakeney. 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.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Blakeney. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
29
~ 1 in 11,819,115 Americans
Peak year
1989
5 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2019 SSA rank
#15,920
Tracked since 1989
Census
Blakeney in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 144 people with the first name Blakeney, which placed it at #46,371 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
#46,371
National first-name rank
People counted
144
144 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.0
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Blakeney
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Blakeney is White at 86.1%. The next largest groups are Black (6.9%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Blakeney 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 Blakeney at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.1% · 124
- Black or African American6.9% · 10
- Two or more races5.6% · 8
- Hispanic or Latino0.7% · 1
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 1
Popularity
Blakeney: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Blakeney from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 15 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Blakeney 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 Blakeney during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Blakeney
The given name Blakeney is believed to have originated as a locational surname, referring to someone who lived near a blackened or burned area. It is derived from the Old English words "blac" meaning black and "leah" meaning a clearing or meadow. The earliest recorded spelling of the name dates back to the 13th century in various English historical records.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Sir Ralph de Blakeney, a Norman knight who fought alongside William the Conqueror during the Norman conquest of England in 1066. His descendant, Sir Edward Blakeney, was a prominent English military officer who served as the Governor of Chelsea Hospital in the late 18th century.
In the 16th century, a notable figure named Blakeney appeared in the historical records of the English Reformation. John Blakeney was a Benedictine monk who refused to take the Oath of Supremacy, recognizing King Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church of England. He was executed for his religious beliefs in 1539.
During the 17th century, the name Blakeney was associated with the English Civil War. Captain Robert Blakeney was a Royalist officer who fought for King Charles I against the Parliamentarian forces led by Oliver Cromwell. He was captured at the Battle of Naseby in 1645 and later exiled to the West Indies.
In the 19th century, Major-General Sir Edward Blakeney was a distinguished British military officer who served in the Napoleonic Wars and later became the Governor of the Cape Colony in South Africa from 1825 to 1828. Another notable figure from this era was William Blakeney, an Irish author and dramatist who wrote several popular plays in the early 1800s.
Throughout its history, the given name Blakeney has been borne by individuals from various walks of life, including military leaders, religious figures, authors, and more. While its origins can be traced back to Old English, the name has endured and been carried on through the centuries, leaving a lasting mark on history.
People
Blakeney + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Blakeney as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Blakeney: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Blakeney?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 29 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Blakeney 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 11,819,115 US residents.
Is Blakeney a common name?
We classify Blakeney as "Very Rare". It ranks above 46% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 30 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Blakeney most popular?
The single biggest year for Blakeney was 1989, when 5 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Blakeney is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Blakeney in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 144 people with the name Blakeney, or 0.05 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #46,371 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 Blakeney 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 Blakeney?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Blakeney on both sides of the split. Of the 146 people counted with this name, 49 were male (33.6%) and 97 were female (66.4%). 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 Blakeney?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Blakeney is White at 86.1%. The next largest groups are Black (6.9%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). 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 Blakeney most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Blakeney in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.1% (124 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 Blakeney in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Blakeney a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Blakeney 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 Blakeney still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Blakeney 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 Blakeney 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 share the name Blakeney?
Want to know how many Americans are named Blakeney? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.