Conley
An English surname derived from the Old English word "conig", meaning "brave youth".
Name Census estimates that about 3,091 living Americans carry the first name Conley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 87.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Conley today is around 32 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Conley births was 2022 (115 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Conley. 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 Conley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.1K
~ 1 in 110,888 Americans
Peak year
2022
115 babies that year
Average age
32
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,309
Tracked since 1882
Census
Conley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,551 people with the first name Conley, which placed it at #6,326 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
#6,326
National first-name rank
People counted
2.6K
2,551 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
86.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Conley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Conley is White at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.0%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Conley 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 Conley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White86.5% · 2,207
- Black or African American6.0% · 153
- Two or more races3.8% · 97
- Hispanic or Latino2.4% · 60
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 19
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 15
Gender
Gender distribution for Conley
Conley leans heavily male at 87.9% of total registrations, but 554 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Conley as a male name
- Ranked #2,309 in 2024
- 61 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2011 (77 births)
Conley as a female name
- Ranked #3,649 in 2024
- 42 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (53 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Conley leans strongly male. 2,145 people counted with this name were male (84.1%), compared with 406 female bearers (15.9%).
Popularity
Conley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Conley 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 895 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Conley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Conley 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 Conley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Conleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 16 states and territories. Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Conley, while West Virginia, Washington, Missouri recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 72 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Conley
The name Conley has its roots in the ancient Irish Gaelic language and is believed to have originated in the 8th or 9th century AD. It is derived from the words "con" meaning hound or wolf, and "lee" meaning meadow, field, or enclosure. This suggests the name was initially given to someone who lived near a meadow or field where wolves or hounds roamed.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Conley can be found in the Annals of the Four Masters, a chronicle of medieval Irish history. In the year 1014, a man named Conley O'Rourke is mentioned as a prominent chieftain who fought in the Battle of Clontarf against the Viking invaders.
During the Middle Ages, the name Conley was particularly common in the Irish provinces of Ulster and Connacht. It was often associated with noble families and clans, such as the O'Conleys of County Sligo.
In the 16th century, a notable figure bearing the name Conley was Conley O'Mulconry, a renowned Irish historian and chronicler who lived from around 1500 to 1590. He is best known for his work "The Book of the O'Conor Don," which documented the history of the O'Conor dynasty in Connacht.
Another prominent Conley was Conley O'Rourke, a 17th-century Irish soldier who fought for the Catholic Confederacy during the Irish Confederate Wars. He was born around 1610 and played a significant role in the defense of Limerick against the Parliamentarian forces.
In the 18th century, Conley Keenan was an Irish Catholic priest who lived from 1738 to 1808. He was a prominent figure in the Irish Catholic Church and served as the Bishop of Cloyne and Ross from 1791 until his death.
As Irish immigrants began to settle in other parts of the world, the name Conley also spread beyond its homeland. One notable bearer of the name was Conley Graves, an American politician who served as the 25th Governor of Nebraska from 1909 to 1911.
People
Conley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Conley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Conley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Conley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,091 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Conley 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 110,888 US residents.
Is Conley a common name?
We classify Conley as "Rare". It ranks above 95.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,562 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Conley most popular?
The single biggest year for Conley was 2022, when 115 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Conley is about 32 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Conley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,551 people with the name Conley, or 0.84 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,326 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 Conley 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 Conley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Conley leans strongly male. 2,145 people counted with this name were male (84.1%), compared with 406 female bearers (15.9%). 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 Conley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Conley is White at 86.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.0%) and Two or More Races (3.8%). 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 Conley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Conley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 86.5% (2,207 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 Conley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Conley a male name?
Yes, 87.9% of people registered as Conley 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 Conley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Conley 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 Conley 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 Americans are named Conley?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.