Orley
A masculine name derived from a surname of Old English origin, meaning "meadow of a person or family".
Name Census estimates that about 60 living Americans carry the first name Orley. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Orley today is around 86 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Orley births was 1918 (25 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Orley. 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 Orley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Orley is about 86 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Orleys were born before 1950.
- • Fewer than 100 living Americans are believed to carry the name Orley. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
60
~ 1 in 5,712,572 Americans
Peak year
1918
25 babies that year
Average age
86
years old
1963 SSA rank
#4,463
Tracked since 1880
Census
Orley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 257 people with the first name Orley, which placed it at #32,623 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
#32,623
National first-name rank
People counted
257
257 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
69.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Orley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orley is White at 69.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.8%) and Black (7.0%). 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 Orley 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 Orley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White69.3% · 178
- Hispanic or Latino21.8% · 56
- Black or African American7.0% · 18
- Two or more races1.6% · 4
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 1
Popularity
Orley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Orley from the 1880s through to the 1960s, spanning 9 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 142 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
Orley 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 Orley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Orleys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Orley
The given name Orley is believed to have its origins in the Old English language, dating back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain between the 5th and 11th centuries. It is derived from the Old English word "or," which means "shore" or "bank," and the suffix "-ley," meaning "meadow" or "clearing." Together, the name Orley can be interpreted as "a meadow by the shore" or "a clearing near the bank."
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Orley can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive record of landholdings and population compiled in 1086 by order of William the Conqueror. The entry mentions an individual named Orley who held land in the county of Hertfordshire, England.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the name Orley was primarily used in England and parts of Northern Europe, although its popularity was relatively limited. It was not until the late 16th and early 17th centuries that the name gained more widespread recognition.
One notable individual with the name Orley was Sir Orley Trenchard (1590-1668), an English lawyer and politician who served as Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas from 1657 to 1660. Another was Orley Farm (1611-1676), an English landowner and Member of Parliament for Worcestershire in the 17th century.
In the 18th century, Orley Shipley (1750-1823) was a prominent English clergyman and academic who served as the Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, from 1799 until his death. During the same period, Orley Bidwell (1785-1861) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts.
In the 19th century, Orley Husted (1830-1903) was an American businessman and politician who served as the Mayor of New York City from 1890 to 1892. Another notable figure was Orley Raulston (1858-1924), a Canadian-American businessman and philanthropist who founded the Raulston Company, a successful manufacturing firm.
While the name Orley has remained relatively uncommon throughout history, it has maintained a presence in various parts of the English-speaking world, particularly in the United States and Canada. Its distinctive and unique sound, combined with its rich historical roots, has contributed to its enduring appeal as a given name.
People
Orley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Orley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with O
Other first names starting with O with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Orley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Orley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 60 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Orley 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 5,712,572 US residents.
Is Orley a common name?
We classify Orley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 57.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 459 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Orley most popular?
The single biggest year for Orley was 1918, when 25 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Orley is about 86 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Orley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 257 people with the name Orley, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,623 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 Orley 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 Orley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Orley leans strongly male. 224 people counted with this name were male (85.8%), compared with 37 female bearers (14.2%). 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 Orley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Orley is White at 69.3%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (21.8%) and Black (7.0%). 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 Orley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Orley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 69.3% (178 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 Orley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Orley a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Orley 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 Orley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Orley 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 Orley 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 Orley as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many Americans are named Orley on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.