Standley
A diminutive form of the English surname Stanley, derived from a place name meaning "stony clearing".
Name Census estimates that about 230 living Americans carry the first name Standley. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Standley today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Standley births was 1959 (20 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Standley. 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 Standley is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Standleys were born before 1970.
People living today
230
~ 1 in 1,490,236 Americans
Peak year
1959
20 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2011 SSA rank
#14,063
Tracked since 1915
Census
Standley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 253 people with the first name Standley, which placed it at #32,947 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
#32,947
National first-name rank
People counted
253
253 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
53.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Standley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Standley is Black at 53.4%. The next largest groups are White (37.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.3%). 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 Standley 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 Standley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American53.4% · 135
- White37.5% · 95
- Asian and Pacific Islander4.3% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino1.6% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.6% · 4
- Two or more races1.6% · 4
Popularity
Standley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Standley from the 1910s through to the 2010s, spanning 10 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1950s, with 126 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1950s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Standley 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 Standley 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 Standley
The given name Standley has its origins traced back to Old English, derived from the elements "stan" meaning stone and "leah" meaning meadow or clearing. It was a locational surname initially, referring to someone who resided near a stony meadow or clearing surrounded by stones.
In its earliest recorded form, the name appeared as "Stanlegh" or "Stanleye" in various medieval English records and charters dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries. The name was particularly prevalent in areas of Lancashire and Cheshire, where many early bearers of the name resided.
One of the earliest documented individuals bearing this name was Sir John Stanley, who lived in the 14th century (c. 1350-1414). He was a notable English nobleman and soldier who served under King Richard II and later became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
During the 15th century, the name gained prominence with the rise of the Stanley family, who were influential in the Wars of the Roses and later became Earls of Derby. Thomas Stanley (c. 1435-1504) played a pivotal role in the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, helping to secure the throne for Henry VII and establishing the Tudor dynasty.
In the 16th century, Sir William Stanley (c. 1548-1630) was a notable English soldier and explorer who participated in the Anglo-Spanish War and later served as a colonial governor in Ireland.
Another famous bearer of the name was Silas Standish (1633-1705), an English Puritan minister and author who was among the early settlers of New England and served as a pastor in several Massachusetts towns.
Edward Stanley (1779-1849), an English naturalist and ornithologist, made significant contributions to the study of birds and published several influential works, including "A Familiar History of Birds" and "A Catalogue of the Birds of Derbyshire and Its Vicinity."
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who bore the given name Standley, reflecting its longstanding presence and significance across various periods and contexts.
People
Standley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Standley 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
Standley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Standley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 230 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Standley 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 1,490,236 US residents.
Is Standley a common name?
We classify Standley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 76% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 382 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Standley most popular?
The single biggest year for Standley was 1959, when 20 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Standley is about 66 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Standley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 253 people with the name Standley, or 0.08 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #32,947 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 Standley 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 Standley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Standley appears almost entirely male. Of the 259 people counted with this name, 99.2% were male and only a very small share were female. 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 Standley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Standley is Black at 53.4%. The next largest groups are White (37.5%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (4.3%). 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 Standley most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Standley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.4% (135 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 Standley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Standley a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Standley 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 Standley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Standley 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 Standley 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 have the name Standley?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.