Greenlee
An English gender-neutral name meaning "green meadow" or "grassy plain".
Name Census estimates that about 821 living Americans carry the first name Greenlee. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Greenlee today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Greenlee births was 2010 (57 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Greenlee. 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
821
~ 1 in 417,484 Americans
Peak year
2010
57 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,113
Tracked since 2001
Census
Greenlee in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 660 people with the first name Greenlee, which placed it at #16,913 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
#16,913
National first-name rank
People counted
660
660 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Greenlee
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Greenlee is White at 78.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.8%) and Two or More Races (7.4%). 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 Greenlee 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 Greenlee at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.6% · 519
- Hispanic or Latino8.8% · 58
- Two or more races7.4% · 49
- Black or African American2.4% · 16
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 12
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 6
Popularity
Greenlee: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Greenlee from the 2000s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 423 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Greenlee 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 Greenlee during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Greenlees live
The SSA's state-level files cover 8 states and territories. Texas, California, Alabama recorded the most babies named Greenlee, while Tennessee, North Carolina, Indiana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 15 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Greenlee
The name Greenlee is an English given name with origins dating back to the late Middle Ages. It is derived from the Old English words "grene" meaning green and "leah" meaning a meadow or clearing. The name likely originated as a descriptive term for someone who lived near a green meadow or field.
During the medieval period, the name was sometimes spelled as "Greneley" or "Grenlegh". It was not an extremely common name, but it did appear in various records and documents from England during the 13th to 15th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Greenlee can be found in the Rotuli Hundredorum, a census-like record from 1273 which mentions a person named "Willelmus de Greneleye" in Oxfordshire, England. Another early reference is in the Cambridgeshire Subsidy Rolls of 1327, which lists a "Johannes Greneley".
In the 15th century, there are records of a Greenlee family residing in Lancashire, England. A notable member was Robert Greenlee (c. 1420 - 1492), who served as a magistrate and landowner in the town of Clitheroe.
Fast forward to the 17th century, and we find Samuel Greenlee (1609 - 1690), an English Puritan minister who emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635. He became a prominent figure in the colony and helped establish the town of Newton.
Another historical figure with the name was Jonathan Greenlee (1718 - 1788), an American soldier and frontiersman who fought in the French and Indian War and later settled in what is now West Virginia.
In more recent centuries, famous people named Greenlee include Ralph Greenlee (1923 - 1989), an American jazz trumpeter and bandleader, and Marcia Greenlee (born 1953), an American actress known for her roles in several popular television shows.
While not an extremely widespread name, Greenlee has a long and interesting history spanning multiple centuries and cultures, originating as a descriptive term for someone living near a green meadow in medieval England.
People
Greenlee + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Greenlee as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Greenlee: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Greenlee?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 821 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Greenlee 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 417,484 US residents.
Is Greenlee a common name?
We classify Greenlee as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 829 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Greenlee most popular?
The single biggest year for Greenlee was 2010, when 57 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Greenlee is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Greenlee in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 660 people with the name Greenlee, or 0.22 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #16,913 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 Greenlee 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 Greenlee?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Greenlee appears almost entirely female. Of the 659 people counted with this name, 99.1% were female and only a very small share were male. 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 Greenlee?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Greenlee is White at 78.6%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.8%) and Two or More Races (7.4%). 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 Greenlee most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Greenlee in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.6% (519 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 Greenlee in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Greenlee a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Greenlee 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 Greenlee still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Greenlee 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 Greenlee 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 Greenlee as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Greenlee on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.