Morley
From an old English surname meaning "dweller upon the moor".
Name Census estimates that about 164 living Americans carry the first name Morley. It is a predominantly male name (91.5% of registrations). The average person named Morley today is around 59 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Morley births was 1925 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Morley. 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 Morley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
164
~ 1 in 2,089,965 Americans
Peak year
1925
24 babies that year
Average age
59
years old
2008 SSA rank
#12,089
Tracked since 1909
Census
Morley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 440 people with the first name Morley, which placed it at #22,573 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
#22,573
National first-name rank
People counted
440
440 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Morley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Morley is White at 79.3%. The next largest groups are Black (8.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.5%). 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 Morley 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 Morley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.3% · 349
- Black or African American8.9% · 39
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.5% · 20
- Two or more races3.6% · 16
- Hispanic or Latino1.8% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.8% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Morley
Morley leans heavily male at 91.5% of total registrations, but 48 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Morley as a male name
- Ranked #12,089 in 2008
- 6 male births in 2008
- Peak: 1918 (19 births)
Morley as a female name
- Ranked #14,670 in 2024
- 6 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (8 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Morley on both sides of the split. Of the 434 people counted with this name, 320 were male (73.7%) and 114 were female (26.3%).
Popularity
Morley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Morley from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 166 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Morley 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 Morley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Morleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Michigan, California, New York recorded the most babies named Morley, while New York, California, Michigan recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 13 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Morley
The name Morley has its origins in Old English and is derived from the words "mor" meaning "moor" or "marsh" and "leah" meaning "a clearing in a forest" or "meadow". It is believed to have emerged as a toponymic surname in the 7th or 8th century, referring to someone who lived near a meadow or marsh.
The earliest recorded use of Morley as a given name dates back to the 12th century in England. One of the earliest known bearers of the name was William de Morley, a Norman nobleman who lived in the late 12th century and was a prominent landowner in Norfolk, England.
In the 13th century, a notable figure named Morley was Robert de Morley, a medieval English nobleman and military commander who fought in the Barons' War against King Henry III in the 1260s. He was a prominent supporter of Simon de Montfort, the leader of the baronial revolt.
Another historical figure with the name Morley was Thomas Morley, an English composer, theorist, and organist of the Renaissance period, who lived from 1557 to 1602. He was one of the most famous and influential composers of his time, known for his contributions to the development of the English madrigal.
In the 18th century, John Morley, a British politician and writer, was born in 1838 and died in 1923. He served as the Chief Secretary for Ireland and later as the Secretary of State for India in the late 19th century.
Christopher Morley, an American novelist, essayist, and poet, was born in 1890 and died in 1957. He is best known for his novel "The Haunted Bookshop" and his contributions to the development of the "Gentlemen's Club" literary genre.
While Morley has been primarily used as a masculine name throughout history, there have been instances of it being used as a feminine name as well, particularly in more recent times.
People
Morley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Morley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with M
Other first names starting with M with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Morley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Morley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 164 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Morley 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 2,089,965 US residents.
Is Morley a common name?
We classify Morley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 566 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Morley most popular?
The single biggest year for Morley was 1925, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Morley is about 59 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Morley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 440 people with the name Morley, or 0.15 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #22,573 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 Morley 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 Morley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Morley on both sides of the split. Of the 434 people counted with this name, 320 were male (73.7%) and 114 were female (26.3%). 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 Morley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Morley is White at 79.3%. The next largest groups are Black (8.9%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.5%). 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 Morley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Morley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.3% (349 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 Morley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Morley a male name?
Yes, 91.5% of people registered as Morley 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 Morley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Morley 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 Morley 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 share the name Morley?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.