Locksley
A masculine name derived from an English place name, possibly meaning "meadow among the hollows".
Name Census estimates that about 12 living Americans carry the first name Locksley. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Locksley today is around 7 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Locksley births was 2023 (7 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Locksley. 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 Locksley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Locksley. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
12
~ 1 in 28,562,862 Americans
Peak year
2023
7 babies that year
Average age
7
years old
2023 SSA rank
#10,347
Tracked since 2013
Census
Locksley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 278 people with the first name Locksley, which placed it at #31,017 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
#31,017
National first-name rank
People counted
278
278 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
74.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Locksley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Locksley is Black at 74.8%. The next largest groups are White (20.1%) and Hispanic (1.8%). 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 Locksley 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 Locksley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American74.8% · 208
- White20.1% · 56
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 5
- Two or more races1.8% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.4% · 4
Popularity
Locksley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Locksley from the 2010s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2020s, with 7 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
Locksley 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 Locksley 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 Locksley
The name Locksley is an English place name derived from the Old English words "loc" meaning an enclosed place or enclosure, and "leah" meaning a meadow or clearing in a forest. It is believed to have originated in the late Anglo-Saxon period, around the 9th or 10th century.
Locksley is primarily associated with the legendary outlaw Robin Hood, who is often referred to as "Robin of Locksley" or "Robin of Loxley" in various medieval ballads and literature. The first recorded use of the name in connection with Robin Hood dates back to the late 15th century in the "Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode".
The earliest known real person with the name Locksley was Sir Ralph de Locksley, a knight who lived in the late 12th century during the reign of King Richard I. He is mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire in 1194 as holding land in the village of Loxley, near Sheffield.
Another notable historical figure with the name Locksley was Sir John de Locksley, who served as the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in the early 14th century, during the reign of King Edward II. He is recorded in the Patent Rolls of 1319 as being granted land in Nottinghamshire.
In the 16th century, there was a William Locksley who was a prominent merchant and alderman in the city of London. He is mentioned in the records of the Worshipful Company of Drapers in 1567.
During the English Civil War in the 17th century, a Captain Thomas Locksley fought for the Parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell. He is recorded as leading a company of musketeers at the Battle of Naseby in 1645.
In more recent times, the name Locksley has been used as a fictional character name in various works of literature and popular culture, often as a nod to its association with Robin Hood.
People
Locksley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Locksley 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
Locksley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Locksley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 12 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Locksley 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 28,562,862 US residents.
Is Locksley a common name?
We classify Locksley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 32.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 12 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Locksley most popular?
The single biggest year for Locksley was 2023, when 7 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Locksley is about 7 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Locksley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 278 people with the name Locksley, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,017 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 Locksley 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 Locksley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Locksley leans strongly male. 242 people counted with this name were male (86.1%), compared with 39 female bearers (13.9%). 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 Locksley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Locksley is Black at 74.8%. The next largest groups are White (20.1%) and Hispanic (1.8%). 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 Locksley most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Locksley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 74.8% (208 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 Locksley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Locksley a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Locksley 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 Locksley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Locksley 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 Locksley 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 Locksley as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.