Esley
A feminine variant of the English surname meaning "from the East field or meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 117 living Americans carry the first name Esley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Esley today is around 41 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Esley births was 1923 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Esley. 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.
People living today
117
~ 1 in 2,929,524 Americans
Peak year
1923
14 babies that year
Average age
41
years old
2015 SSA rank
#12,646
Tracked since 1894
Census
Esley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 234 people with the first name Esley, which placed it at #34,758 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
#34,758
National first-name rank
People counted
234
234 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Esley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Esley is White at 49.1%. The next largest groups are Black (23.9%) and Hispanic (18.8%). 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 Esley 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 Esley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.1% · 115
- Black or African American23.9% · 56
- Hispanic or Latino18.8% · 44
- Two or more races3.4% · 8
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.6% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.1% · 5
Gender
Gender distribution for Esley
Esley leans heavily male at 83.8% of total registrations, but 52 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Esley as a male name
- Ranked #12,646 in 2015
- 5 male births in 2015
- Peak: 1923 (14 births)
Esley as a female name
- Ranked #13,960 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Esley on both sides of the split. Of the 236 people counted with this name, 163 were male (69.1%) and 73 were female (30.9%).
Popularity
Esley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Esley from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 93 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 1920s peak, Esley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Esley 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 Esley 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 Esley
The name Esley is believed to have originated from Old English and Anglo-Saxon roots. It is thought to be a combination of two words: "es," meaning "grace" or "favor," and "ley," meaning "field" or "meadow." This suggests that the name Esley may have been originally borne by someone who lived near a graceful or favored field or meadow.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Esley can be found in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of the great survey of England completed in 1086 under the order of William the Conqueror. Here, the name was spelled "Eslei" and referred to a landowner in the county of Wiltshire.
In the 12th century, there was a famous English cleric named Esley de Beaumont who served as the Bishop of Salisbury from 1198 to 1217. He was known for his involvement in various political and ecclesiastical affairs during the reigns of King Richard I and King John.
Another notable figure with the name Esley was Sir Esley Wykeham, a 14th-century English architect and bishop. He is best known for his role in the construction of the magnificent Winchester Cathedral, which remains one of the finest examples of Gothic architecture in England.
In the 16th century, Esley Philips was a prominent English lawyer and politician who served as a Member of Parliament for the borough of Somerset. He was also a respected legal scholar and author of several influential works on English law.
During the 17th century, Esley Cooke was an English clergyman and scholar who served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. He was known for his extensive knowledge of classical literature and his contributions to the field of education.
Throughout history, the name Esley has been borne by individuals from various walks of life, including clergy, architects, lawyers, politicians, and scholars. While it may not be as common today as some other names, Esley remains a unique and historically significant name with roots in the Anglo-Saxon culture and language.
People
Esley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Esley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with E
Other first names starting with E with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Esley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Esley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 117 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Esley 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 2,929,524 US residents.
Is Esley a common name?
We classify Esley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 66.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 320 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Esley most popular?
The single biggest year for Esley was 1923, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Esley is about 41 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Esley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 234 people with the name Esley, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,758 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 Esley 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 Esley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Esley on both sides of the split. Of the 236 people counted with this name, 163 were male (69.1%) and 73 were female (30.9%). 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 Esley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Esley is White at 49.1%. The next largest groups are Black (23.9%) and Hispanic (18.8%). 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 Esley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Esley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.1% (115 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 Esley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Esley a male name?
Yes, 83.8% of people registered as Esley 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 Esley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Esley 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 Esley 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 Esley as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.