Langley
From the Old English words "lang" and "ley", meaning long meadow or clearing.
Name Census estimates that about 756 living Americans carry the first name Langley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 80.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Langley today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Langley births was 2015 (45 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Langley. 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
756
~ 1 in 453,379 Americans
Peak year
2015
45 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2019 SSA rank
#7,772
Tracked since 1907
Gender
Gender distribution for Langley
Langley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 815 total registrations, 163 (20.0%) were male and 652 (80.0%) were female.
Langley as a male name
- Ranked #8,596 in 2019
- 9 male births in 2019
- Peak: 1928 (9 births)
Langley as a female name
- Ranked #7,772 in 2024
- 14 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (38 births)
Popularity
Langley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Langley from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 350 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
Langley 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 Langley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Langleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Langley, while North Carolina, Georgia, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Langley
The name Langley has its origins in the Old English language. Derived from the words "lang" meaning long and "leah" meaning a meadow or clearing in a forest, it was originally a place name referring to a long meadow or clearing. The name dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period in England, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Langley can be found in the Domesday Book, a record of landholdings commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The entry mentions a place called "Langelei" in Hertfordshire, England. This suggests that Langley was already in use as a place name by the late 11th century.
The name Langley gained popularity as a given name during the Middle Ages. One of the earliest known individuals with the name Langley was Sir John Langley, a 14th-century English nobleman and military commander who fought in the Hundred Years' War. He was born around 1330 and died in 1375.
Another notable figure in history with the name Langley was Thomas Langley, an English prelate who served as the Bishop of Durham and Lord Chancellor of England in the early 15th century. He was born around 1363 and died in 1437.
In the field of science, Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American astronomer and aviation pioneer, made significant contributions to the development of heavier-than-air flight. He was born in 1834 and died in 1906.
In the realm of literature, Walter Langley was a prominent English Victorian artist and writer known for his genre paintings depicting rural life. He was born in 1852 and died in 1922.
Another notable individual was Batty Langley, an English gardener and architectural writer who lived in the 18th century. He was born in 1696 and his works, such as "Ancient Architecture, Restored and Improved" (1742), influenced Georgian architecture and landscape design.
While the name Langley has its roots in Old English and was initially a place name, it has become a given name in its own right, with several notable historical figures bearing this name over the centuries.
People
Langley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Langley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Langley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Langley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 756 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Langley 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 453,379 US residents.
Is Langley a common name?
We classify Langley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 815 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Langley most popular?
The single biggest year for Langley was 2015, when 45 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Langley is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Langley a female name?
Yes, 80.0% of people registered as Langley 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.
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.