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.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Stacey with official rankings and popularity over time.
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
Census
Stacey in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 141,478 people with the first name Stacey, which placed it at #399 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
#399
National first-name rank
People counted
141K
141,478 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
46.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
78.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Stacey
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Stacey is White at 78.5%. The next largest groups are Black (11.4%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Stacey 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 Stacey at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White78.5% · 111,087
- Black or African American11.4% · 16,101
- Hispanic or Latino4.9% · 6,996
- Two or more races2.8% · 3,997
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.7% · 2,383
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.6% · 914
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)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Stacey leans strongly female. 131,647 people counted with this name were female (93.0%), compared with 9,833 male bearers (7.0%).
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.
How common was Stacey in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 141,478 people with the name Stacey, or 46.84 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #399 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 Stacey 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 Stacey?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Stacey leans strongly female. 131,647 people counted with this name were female (93.0%), compared with 9,833 male bearers (7.0%). 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 Stacey?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Stacey is White at 78.5%. The next largest groups are Black (11.4%) and Hispanic (4.9%). 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 Stacey most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Stacey in the 2020 Census, accounting for 78.5% (111,087 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 Stacey in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
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.
Is Stacey still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Stacey 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 Stacey 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 common is the name Stacey?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Stacey at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.