Stacey
A feminine English name of Greek origin meaning "resurrection" or "fruitful".
Name Census estimates that about 144,118 living Americans carry the first name Stacey. It is a predominantly female name (91.4% of registrations). The average person named Stacey today is around 50 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Stacey births was 1971 (8,006 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Stacey. 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
- • Compared to the 1970s, recent registration numbers for Stacey have dropped to less than 5% of what they once were.
People living today
144K
~ 1 in 2,378 Americans
Peak year
1971
8,006 babies that year
Average age
50
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,763
Tracked since 1913
Gender
Gender distribution for Stacey
Stacey leans heavily female at 91.4% of total registrations, but 13,974 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Stacey as a male name
- Ranked #6,400 in 2024
- 14 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1968 (1,073 births)
Stacey as a female name
- Ranked #2,763 in 2024
- 62 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1971 (7,482 births)
Popularity
Stacey: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Stacey from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1970s, with 63,448 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1970s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Stacey 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 Stacey during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Staceys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 51 states and territories. California, New York, Pennsylvania recorded the most babies named Stacey, while Alaska, Wyoming, Vermont recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 3,057 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Stacey
The name Stacey is an English feminine given name derived from the ancient Greek name Stachys. In Greek, the word "stachys" means an "ear of grain" or "a spike of wheat". It is believed to have originated as a nickname or a shortened form of the Greek name Eustachios, which means "fruitful" or "plentiful".
The name Stachys appears in the Bible, specifically in the Epistle to the Romans (Romans 16:9), where the apostle Paul sends greetings to a person named Stachys. This is one of the earliest recorded instances of the name's use.
The modern English spelling variation "Stacey" emerged in the Middle Ages, around the 13th century. It was initially used as a masculine name but gradually became more commonly associated with females.
One of the earliest recorded bearers of the name Stacey was Stacey Grimaldi, a 13th-century Florentine noble and military leader. He is mentioned in historical records for his participation in the Guelph-Ghibelline conflicts in Italy during that period.
In the 16th century, Stacey Stucley was an English explorer and adventurer who accompanied Sir Walter Raleigh on his expeditions to the Americas. He was born around 1550 and is noted for his writings about the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and South America.
Stacy Towles, born in 1799, was an American pioneer and frontiersman who played a significant role in the settlement of the American West. He is remembered for his adventures and encounters with Native American tribes in the early 19th century.
Stacey Aumonier, born in 1877, was an English writer and novelist. He is best known for his short stories and novels that depicted life in rural England during the early 20th century.
Stacey Keach, born in 1941, is an American actor and director. He is renowned for his performances in various films and television shows, including the role of Mike Hammer in the 1980s crime drama series of the same name.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Stacey
People
Stacey + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Stacey as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Stacey: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Stacey?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 144,118 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Stacey 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 2,378 US residents.
Is Stacey a common name?
We classify Stacey as "Common". It ranks above 99.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 161,667 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Stacey most popular?
The single biggest year for Stacey was 1971, when 8,006 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Stacey is about 50 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Stacey a female name?
Yes, 91.4% of people registered as Stacey 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.
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.