Perley
Light grove or meadow from the English name elements prill and leah.
Name Census estimates that about 165 living Americans carry the first name Perley. It is a predominantly male name (97.0% of registrations). The average person named Perley today is around 83 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Perley births was 1915 (30 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Perley. 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
- • The typical person named Perley is about 83 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Perleys were born before 1953.
People living today
165
~ 1 in 2,077,299 Americans
Peak year
1915
30 babies that year
Average age
83
years old
1964 SSA rank
#3,002
Tracked since 1880
Census
Perley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 232 people with the first name Perley, which placed it at #34,960 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
#34,960
National first-name rank
People counted
232
232 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.3% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Perley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Perley is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Black (11.6%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Perley 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 Perley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.3% · 191
- Black or African American11.6% · 27
- Two or more races3.0% · 7
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.7% · 4
- Hispanic or Latino0.9% · 2
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 1
Gender
Gender distribution for Perley
Perley leans heavily male at 97.0% of total registrations, but 32 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Perley as a male name
- Ranked #3,002 in 1964
- 9 male births in 1964
- Peak: 1915 (30 births)
Perley as a female name
- Ranked #5,085 in 1945
- 5 female births in 1945
- Peak: 1933 (6 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Perley leans strongly male. 208 people counted with this name were male (87.8%), compared with 29 female bearers (12.2%).
Popularity
Perley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Perley 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 225 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
Perley 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 Perley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Perleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 4 states and territories. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont recorded the most babies named Perley, while Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 68 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Perley
The name Perley has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the word "pear" and the suffix "-ley," which means a clearing or meadow. It emerged during the Anglo-Saxon period in England, which spanned from the 5th to the 11th centuries. The name likely referred to a person who lived near a pear orchard or a meadow where pear trees grew.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Perley dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a comprehensive record of landowners and their properties commissioned by William the Conqueror. The entry mentions a landowner named Perley in the county of Essex.
In the Middle Ages, the name Perley gained some prominence. A notable figure was Perley of Winchester, a 13th-century English priest and scholar who authored several religious texts and sermons. His works are preserved in the archives of the Winchester Cathedral.
During the Renaissance period, a prominent bearer of the name was Perley Wentworth (1501-1567), an English diplomat and courtier who served under King Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth I. He played a significant role in the negotiations between England and Spain during his time as an ambassador.
In the 17th century, Perley Aldrich (1623-1698) was a Puritan settler who emigrated from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635. He became a prominent figure in the town of Mendon, serving as a selectman and contributing to the establishment of the local church.
Another notable figure was Perley Morse (1779-1856), an American inventor and manufacturer from Massachusetts. He is credited with developing the first practical machine for manufacturing wooden buckets, which revolutionized the industry at the time.
During the 19th century, Perley Poore (1824-1893) was an American journalist and writer who served as the chief clerk of the United States Department of the Interior. He published several books, including "The Rise and Fall of Louis Philippe" and "Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis."
These are just a few examples of historical figures who bore the name Perley, but it has been used across various cultures and time periods, albeit with varying levels of popularity.
People
Perley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Perley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with P
Other first names starting with P with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Perley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Perley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 165 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Perley 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 2,077,299 US residents.
Is Perley a common name?
We classify Perley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 1,052 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Perley most popular?
The single biggest year for Perley was 1915, when 30 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Perley is about 83 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Perley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 232 people with the name Perley, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #34,960 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 Perley 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 Perley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Perley leans strongly male. 208 people counted with this name were male (87.8%), compared with 29 female bearers (12.2%). 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 Perley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Perley is White at 82.3%. The next largest groups are Black (11.6%) and Two or More Races (3.0%). 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 Perley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Perley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.3% (191 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 Perley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Perley a male name?
Yes, 97.0% of people registered as Perley 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 Perley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Perley 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 Perley 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 Perley?
Want to know how many people share the name Perley? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.