Halley
A feminine name of probable Old English origin meaning "from the nook of land".
Name Census estimates that about 3,966 living Americans carry the first name Halley. It is a predominantly female name (97.0% of registrations). The average person named Halley today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Halley births was 1986 (355 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Halley. 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 Halley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Halley is used almost entirely for girls, the SSA data does show 126 boys registered with the name since 1880.
People living today
4.0K
~ 1 in 86,423 Americans
Peak year
1986
355 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
1986 SSA rank
#2,456
Tracked since 1910
Census
Halley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 3,868 people with the first name Halley, which placed it at #4,700 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
#4,700
National first-name rank
People counted
3.9K
3,868 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.0% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Halley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Halley is White at 79.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.6%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Halley 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 Halley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.0% · 3,056
- Hispanic or Latino9.6% · 371
- Two or more races4.9% · 190
- Black or African American3.3% · 127
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.4% · 92
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.8% · 32
Gender
Gender distribution for Halley
Halley leans heavily female at 97.0% of total registrations, but 126 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Halley as a male name
- Ranked #2,456 in 1986
- 22 male births in 1986
- Peak: 1986 (22 births)
Halley as a female name
- Ranked #2,720 in 2024
- 63 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1986 (333 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Halley leans strongly female. 3,697 people counted with this name were female (95.7%), compared with 167 male bearers (4.3%).
Popularity
Halley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Halley from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 1,314 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Halley 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 Halley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Halleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 36 states and territories. California, Texas, Ohio recorded the most babies named Halley, while West Virginia, South Carolina, Nebraska recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 48 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Halley
The name Halley has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the word "hæleþ," which means "hero" or "warrior." This name was commonly used in Anglo-Saxon England during the early medieval period, around the 5th to 11th centuries.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Halley can be found in the Domesday Book, a historical record commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The name appears as "Hallei," referring to a landowner in the county of Norfolk, England.
In the 12th century, the name Halley gained prominence with the birth of Halley of Brittany (c. 1109 – c. 1165), a Breton cleric and historian who wrote the "Chronicon Britannicum," a chronicle of British history.
During the Renaissance period, the name Halley was associated with the renowned English astronomer Edmond Halley (1656 – 1742). He is best known for calculating the orbit of the comet that now bears his name, Halley's Comet, which is visible from Earth every 75-76 years.
Another notable individual with the name Halley was Sir Henry Halley (1828 – 1904), a British civil servant who served as the Chief Clerk of the Admiralty and was knighted for his services to the British government.
In the 20th century, Halley Foulkes (1898 – 1981) was a Welsh author and poet who published several collections of poetry and prose, including "The Greenfields" and "The Dower House."
It is worth mentioning that while the name Halley has its origins in Old English, it has also been adopted and used in various other cultures and languages, with slight variations in spelling and pronunciation.
People
Halley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Halley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Halley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Halley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,966 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Halley 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 86,423 US residents.
Is Halley a common name?
We classify Halley as "Rare". It ranks above 96% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,195 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Halley most popular?
The single biggest year for Halley was 1986, when 355 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Halley is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Halley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 3,868 people with the name Halley, or 1.28 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #4,700 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 Halley 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 Halley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Halley leans strongly female. 3,697 people counted with this name were female (95.7%), compared with 167 male bearers (4.3%). 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 Halley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Halley is White at 79.0%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.6%) and Two or More Races (4.9%). 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 Halley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Halley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.0% (3,056 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 Halley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Halley a female name?
Yes, 97.0% of people registered as Halley 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 Halley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Halley 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 Halley 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 called Halley?
You can see how many people share the name Halley on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org — same data roots, lighter UI.