Mosley
From a village or estate with a mossy meadow.
Name Census estimates that about 88 living Americans carry the first name Mosley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 79.8% of registrations being female. The average person named Mosley today is around 9 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Mosley births was 2016 (18 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Mosley. 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
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Mosley. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
88
~ 1 in 3,894,936 Americans
Peak year
2016
18 babies that year
Average age
9
years old
2015 SSA rank
#10,269
Tracked since 1928
Census
Mosley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 192 people with the first name Mosley, which placed it at #39,369 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
#39,369
National first-name rank
People counted
192
192 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
54.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Mosley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mosley is White at 54.2%. The next largest groups are Black (30.2%) and Hispanic (7.3%). 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 Mosley 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 Mosley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White54.2% · 104
- Black or African American30.2% · 58
- Hispanic or Latino7.3% · 14
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 7
- Two or more races3.6% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 2
Gender
Gender distribution for Mosley
Mosley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 94 total registrations, 19 (20.2%) were male and 75 (79.8%) were female.
Mosley as a male name
- Ranked #10,269 in 2015
- 7 male births in 2015
- Peak: 2015 (7 births)
Mosley as a female name
- Ranked #11,785 in 2024
- 8 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (18 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mosley on both sides of the split. Of the 184 people counted with this name, 100 were male (54.3%) and 84 were female (45.7%).
Popularity
Mosley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Mosley from the 1920s through to the 2020s, spanning 3 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 69 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
Mosley 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 Mosley 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 Mosley
The given name Mosley is of English origin and can be traced back to the 11th century. It is derived from the Old English words "mos" meaning "moss" and "leah" meaning "meadow" or "clearing." This suggests that the name originally referred to a mossy meadow or a clearing covered in moss.
In the Domesday Book, a historical record compiled in 1086 for William the Conqueror, there are several references to places with names containing the element "mos," such as Musewood and Musewell. These place names likely influenced the development of the personal name Mosley.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Mosley dates back to the 13th century. In 1273, a man named Robert de Mosley was mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Lancashire, England. This suggests that the name was already in use as a surname during that time.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Mosley. One of the most famous was Sir Oswald Mosley (1896-1980), a British politician who founded the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s. Although controversial, he played a significant role in the political landscape of his time.
Another prominent figure with the name Mosley was Michael Mosley (born 1957), a British journalist and television presenter known for his work on science and health programs, including "Trust Me, I'm a Doctor" and "The Cholesterol Truth."
In the realm of sports, Walter Mosley (1952-2005) was an American professional baseball player who played in the Major League Baseball (MLB) for teams like the Oakland Athletics and Milwaukee Brewers during the 1970s and 1980s.
The name Mosley also has literary connections. Walter Mosley (born 1952) is an acclaimed American author best known for his crime fiction novels featuring the character Easy Rawlins, such as "Devil in a Blue Dress" and "A Red Death."
Additionally, Sir Henry Mosley (1887-1962) was a British architect and designer who made significant contributions to the Arts and Crafts movement in the early 20th century.
While the name Mosley has evolved over time and been borne by individuals from various walks of life, its origins can be traced back to the Old English language and the concept of a mossy clearing, reflecting the rich linguistic heritage of the English language.
People
Mosley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Mosley 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
Mosley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Mosley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 88 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Mosley 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 3,894,936 US residents.
Is Mosley a common name?
We classify Mosley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 62.7% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 94 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Mosley most popular?
The single biggest year for Mosley was 2016, when 18 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Mosley is about 9 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Mosley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 192 people with the name Mosley, or 0.06 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #39,369 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 Mosley 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 Mosley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Mosley on both sides of the split. Of the 184 people counted with this name, 100 were male (54.3%) and 84 were female (45.7%). 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 Mosley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Mosley is White at 54.2%. The next largest groups are Black (30.2%) and Hispanic (7.3%). 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 Mosley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Mosley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 54.2% (104 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 Mosley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Mosley a female name?
Yes, 79.8% of people registered as Mosley 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 Mosley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Mosley 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 Mosley 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 Mosley as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Mosley, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.