Owsley
A masculine name of Old English origin meaning "from the owls' meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 30 living Americans carry the first name Owsley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 83.3% of registrations being male. The average person named Owsley today is around 7 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Owsley births was 2017 (11 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Owsley. 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 Owsley. It is among the rarest names in the SSA records.
People living today
30
~ 1 in 11,425,145 Americans
Peak year
2017
11 babies that year
Average age
7
years old
2024 SSA rank
#13,673
Tracked since 2017
Gender
Gender distribution for Owsley
Owsley leans heavily male at 83.3% of total registrations, but 5 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Owsley as a male name
- Ranked #13,673 in 2024
- 5 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2021 (8 births)
Owsley as a female name
- Ranked #17,797 in 2017
- 5 female births in 2017
- Peak: 2017 (5 births)
Popularity
Owsley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Owsley from the 2010s through to the 2020s, spanning 2 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 17 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Owsley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Owsley 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 Owsley 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 Owsley
The name Owsley is an English surname that has been used as a given name, particularly in the United States. It is derived from the Old English words "owes" and "leah," which together mean "a meadow where owes or black-birds nest."
The name has its origins in the medieval period, likely emerging as a surname in the 11th or 12th century. It was initially used to identify individuals who lived near or owned land with a meadow where blackbirds nested.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Owsley can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which mentions a place named "Ouuesleie" (modern-day Oswestry, Shropshire, England). This suggests that the name was already in use as a surname during the Norman period.
Throughout history, the name Owsley has been relatively uncommon, with a few notable individuals bearing this first name. One of the earliest recorded persons was Owsley Manier (1730-1808), a prominent lawyer and landowner in Kentucky.
Another individual of note was Owsley Frazier (1828-1898), a Confederate general during the American Civil War. He served in several major battles, including the Battle of Gettysburg and the Atlanta Campaign.
In the 20th century, Owsley Stanley (1935-2011) was a renowned audio engineer and clandestine chemist known for his involvement in the counterculture movement of the 1960s. He is credited with introducing LSD to the Grateful Dead and other iconic figures of the era.
Owsley Brown (1899-1978) was a prominent businessman and philanthropist from Kentucky. He served as the president of Brown-Forman Corporation, a leading producer of alcoholic beverages, including Jack Daniel's whiskey.
Owsley Brown Frazier (1935-2012) was a successful thoroughbred horse breeder and owner. He owned several Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup winners, including Genuine Risk and Alydar.
While the name Owsley has its origins in England, it has been more commonly used as a given name in the United States, particularly in the southern states. However, it remains a relatively uncommon name, with no major religious or cultural significance beyond its linguistic roots.
People
Owsley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Owsley 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
Owsley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Owsley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 30 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Owsley 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 11,425,145 US residents.
Is Owsley a common name?
We classify Owsley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 46.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 30 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Owsley most popular?
The single biggest year for Owsley was 2017, when 11 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Owsley is about 7 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Owsley a male name?
Yes, 83.3% of people registered as Owsley 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.
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.