Huntley
One thought to be from the huntsman's meadow or hunting lea.
Name Census estimates that about 1,659 living Americans carry the first name Huntley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 58.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Huntley today is around 8 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Huntley births was 2024 (200 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Huntley. 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
- • Huntley sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
- • Huntley is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 8 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
1.7K
~ 1 in 206,603 Americans
Peak year
2024
200 babies that year
Average age
8
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,697
Tracked since 1925
Gender
Gender distribution for Huntley
Huntley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 1,690 total registrations, 994 (58.8%) were male and 696 (41.2%) were female.
Huntley as a male name
- Ranked #1,697 in 2024
- 98 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (98 births)
Huntley as a female name
- Ranked #1,944 in 2024
- 102 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (102 births)
Popularity
Huntley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Huntley from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 784 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
Huntley 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 Huntley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Huntleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 20 states and territories. Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Huntley, while Ohio, Michigan, Iowa recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 16 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Huntley
The given name Huntley has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the combination of two words: "hunta" meaning "hunter" and "leah" meaning "meadow" or "clearing." This suggests that the name was originally associated with areas of land used for hunting, likely in the rural regions of England during the Anglo-Saxon period.
Variations of the name, such as Huntlie or Huntly, can be found in historical records dating back to the 11th century, including the Domesday Book of 1086, which documented landholdings and settlements in England. The name was particularly prevalent in the northern regions of England and Scotland, where hunting played a significant role in the local culture and economy.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the name Huntley was Sir Ranulph de Huntley, a Norman knight who fought alongside William the Conqueror during the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Another notable figure was Sir Walter de Huntley, a 13th-century English nobleman and landowner in Gloucestershire.
In the 15th century, the name gained prominence with the rise of the Huntly family, a powerful Scottish clan based in Aberdeenshire. Alexander Seton, 1st Earl of Huntly (1430-1470), was a prominent military leader and supporter of the Scottish monarchy during the Wars of the Roses.
During the Tudor period, the name was associated with several influential figures, including George Huntley (c. 1510-1589), an English clergyman and scholar who served as the Bishop of Gloucester and later the Bishop of Lincoln under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
In the 17th century, Sir Henry Huntley (1596-1677) was an English politician and landowner who served as a Member of Parliament during the English Civil War. He was known for his support of the Parliamentarian cause against King Charles I.
The name Huntley also has a connection to the American colonies, with Jedediah Huntley (1743-1818) being a revolutionary soldier who fought in the American Revolutionary War and later became a prominent settler in Ohio.
These examples illustrate the historical significance and geographic spread of the given name Huntley, which has been associated with prominent figures across various periods and regions, particularly in England and Scotland.
People
Huntley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Huntley 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
Huntley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Huntley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,659 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Huntley 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 206,603 US residents.
Is Huntley a common name?
We classify Huntley as "Rare". It ranks above 92.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,690 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Huntley most popular?
The single biggest year for Huntley was 2024, when 200 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Huntley is about 8 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Huntley a male name?
Yes, 58.8% of people registered as Huntley 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.
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.