Presley
An English name derived from an English place name meaning "priest's meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 34,220 living Americans carry the first name Presley. It sits at #224 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 86.2% of registrations being female. The average person named Presley today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Presley births was 2014 (1,886 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Presley. 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 Presley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Presley started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Presley is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 14 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
34K
~ 1 in 10,016 Americans
Peak year
2014
1,886 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#224
Tracked since 1880
Census
Presley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 24,714 people with the first name Presley, which placed it at #1,404 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
#1,404
National first-name rank
People counted
25K
24,714 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
8.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
79.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Presley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Presley is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.9%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Presley 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 Presley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White79.9% · 19,755
- Hispanic or Latino9.9% · 2,452
- Two or more races5.4% · 1,343
- Black or African American2.1% · 524
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 338
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.2% · 302
Gender
Gender distribution for Presley
Presley leans heavily female at 86.2% of total registrations, but 4,857 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Presley as a male name
- Ranked #1,740 in 2024
- 95 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2009 (160 births)
Presley as a female name
- Ranked #224 in 2024
- 1,373 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (1,743 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Presley leans strongly female. 21,460 people counted with this name were female (86.8%), compared with 3,261 male bearers (13.2%).
Popularity
Presley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Presley from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 16,680 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Presley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Presley 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 Presley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Presleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 47 states and territories. Texas, California, Florida recorded the most babies named Presley, while Delaware, Alaska, New Hampshire recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 657 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Presley
The given name Presley has its origins in the Old English language, derived from the combination of two words: "preost" meaning "priest" and "leah" meaning "meadow" or "clearing." This name was commonly used in medieval England, particularly among those living in rural areas or near clearings in forests, where priests or religious figures would often establish small communities or churches.
While the name's exact origins are obscure, it is believed to have been in use as early as the 7th or 8th century CE, during the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain. Some of the earliest recorded instances of the name can be found in historical documents and parish records from that era, often spelled as "Preastleah" or variations thereof.
One of the earliest known individuals to bear the name Presley was a Saxon nobleman named Presley of Mercia, who lived in the 9th century CE and held lands in the Mercian kingdom of what is now central England. Another notable figure was Presley the Monk, a Benedictine monk who lived in the 11th century and was known for his scholarship and religious writings.
In the 13th century, a man named Presley de Wylton was recorded as a landowner in Wiltshire, England, indicating that the name had spread beyond its original regional confines. During the same period, a Presley de Cheltenham was mentioned in records as a prominent citizen of the town of Cheltenham.
One of the most famous individuals to bear the name Presley was the English composer and organist Thomas Presley (c. 1560-1636), who served as the organist and master of choristers at Chester Cathedral during the reign of King James I.
Another notable figure was Sir Presley Benton (1615-1677), an English politician and member of Parliament during the English Civil War and the Commonwealth period. He was a staunch supporter of the Parliamentarian cause and played a role in the trial and execution of King Charles I.
In the 18th century, Presley Thornton (1721-1806) was a prominent English businessman and landowner, known for his philanthropy and support of education in his local community.
It is worth noting that while the name Presley has ancient origins, it remained relatively uncommon throughout much of history, often associated with individuals from rural or ecclesiastical backgrounds. It was not until the 20th century, with the rise of popular culture and the global fame of the American singer Elvis Presley, that the name gained widespread recognition and became more widely adopted as a given name, particularly in English-speaking countries.
People
Presley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Presley 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
Presley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Presley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 34,220 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Presley 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 10,016 US residents.
Is Presley a common name?
We classify Presley as "Uncommon". It ranks above 98.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 35,268 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Presley most popular?
The single biggest year for Presley was 2014, when 1,886 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Presley is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Presley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 24,714 people with the name Presley, or 8.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #1,404 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 Presley 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 Presley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Presley leans strongly female. 21,460 people counted with this name were female (86.8%), compared with 3,261 male bearers (13.2%). 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 Presley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Presley is White at 79.9%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (9.9%) and Two or More Races (5.4%). 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 Presley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Presley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 79.9% (19,755 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 Presley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Presley a female name?
Yes, 86.2% of people registered as Presley 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 Presley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Presley 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 Presley 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 Americans are named Presley?
For a faster, more casual read, check HowManyOfMe.org — our sister site built around that single question.