Bradely
A masculine name of Old English origin meaning "broad meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 56 living Americans carry the first name Bradely. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Bradely today is around 46 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bradely births was 1969 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bradely. 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 Bradely. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
56
~ 1 in 6,120,613 Americans
Peak year
1969
11 babies that year
Average age
46
years old
1989 SSA rank
#8,035
Tracked since 1961
Census
Bradely in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 201 people with the first name Bradely, which placed it at #38,294 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
#38,294
National first-name rank
People counted
201
201 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bradely
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bradely is White at 78.6%. The next largest groups are Black (8.5%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Bradely 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 Bradely at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.6% · 158
- Black or African American8.5% · 17
- Hispanic or Latino7.0% · 14
- Two or more races4.0% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.5% · 3
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.5% · 1
Popularity
Bradely: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bradely from the 1960s through to the 1980s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1980s, with 35 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
Bradely 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 Bradely 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 Bradely
The name Bradely has its origins in the English language and can be traced back to the Middle English era, roughly spanning the 11th to 15th centuries. It is derived from the Old English words "brad" and "leah," which together mean "broad meadow" or "wide clearing in a forest."
Some linguists suggest that the name may also have roots in the Old Norse language, with "brad" meaning "broad" and "leyar" referring to a "meadow" or "pasture." This Nordic influence on English names is not surprising, given the Viking invasions and settlements that occurred in parts of Britain during the early medieval period.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bradely can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of land ownership and taxation commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. This suggests that the name was already in use among the Anglo-Saxon population at that time.
In religious texts, the name Bradely appears in the Wakefield Mystery Plays, a series of medieval cycle plays based on biblical stories, which were performed in the town of Wakefield, Yorkshire, in the late 15th century. One of the characters in these plays bears the name Bradely.
Notable historical figures who carried the name Bradely include Sir Thomas Bradely (1433–1497), an English soldier and courtier who served under King Henry VII. Another was Henry Bradely (1580–1646), an English clergyman and scholar who served as the Dean of Westminster Abbey from 1642 until his death.
In the realm of literature, the name Bradely can be found in the works of the English writer and philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), who mentions a character named Bradely in his philosophical treatise "Leviathan" published in 1651.
An influential figure in the field of natural history was Richard Bradely (1688–1732), an English botanist and author who wrote extensively on the cultivation of plants and gardening techniques. His work, "New Improvements of Planting and Gardening," published in 1717, was highly influential in its time.
Lastly, a notable military figure was General Omar Nelson Bradely (1893–1981), an American Army officer who served as the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and played a crucial role in the Allied victory during World War II. He is widely regarded as one of the most decorated and influential military leaders in American history.
People
Bradely + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bradely 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
Bradely: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bradely?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 56 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bradely 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 6,120,613 US residents.
Is Bradely a common name?
We classify Bradely as "Very Rare". It ranks above 56% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 60 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bradely most popular?
The single biggest year for Bradely was 1969, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bradely is about 46 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bradely in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 201 people with the name Bradely, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,294 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 Bradely 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 Bradely?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bradely leans strongly male. 203 people counted with this name were male (97.1%), compared with 6 female bearers (2.9%). 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 Bradely?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bradely is White at 78.6%. The next largest groups are Black (8.5%) and Hispanic (7.0%). 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 Bradely most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Bradely in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.6% (158 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 Bradely in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bradely a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bradely 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 Bradely still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bradely 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 Bradely 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 named Bradely?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many Americans are named Bradely at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.