Coley
A diminutive form of the English name Colin, derived from the surname meaning "man or son from Cologne".
Name Census estimates that about 1,643 living Americans carry the first name Coley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 85.6% of registrations being male. The average person named Coley today is around 40 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Coley births was 2008 (42 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Coley. 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 Coley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
1.6K
~ 1 in 208,615 Americans
Peak year
2008
42 babies that year
Average age
40
years old
2024 SSA rank
#9,034
Tracked since 1881
Census
Coley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 1,510 people with the first name Coley, which placed it at #9,276 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
#9,276
National first-name rank
People counted
1.5K
1,510 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.5
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
75.6% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Coley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Coley is White at 75.6%. The next largest groups are Black (18.2%) 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 Coley 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 Coley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White75.6% · 1,142
- Black or African American18.2% · 275
- Two or more races3.0% · 45
- Hispanic or Latino1.4% · 21
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 17
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.7% · 10
Gender
Gender distribution for Coley
Coley leans heavily male at 85.6% of total registrations, but 340 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Coley as a male name
- Ranked #10,063 in 2024
- 7 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1993 (37 births)
Coley as a female name
- Ranked #9,034 in 2024
- 11 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2008 (23 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Coley on both sides of the split. Of the 1,505 people counted with this name, 1,120 were male (74.4%) and 385 were female (25.6%).
Popularity
Coley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Coley from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 258 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2000s peak, Coley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Coley 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 Coley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Coleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 6 states and territories. South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia recorded the most babies named Coley, while Mississippi, Texas, Alabama recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 43 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Coley
The given name Coley is believed to have originated as a diminutive or nickname form of the name Colin, which itself derives from the Old Celtic name Cullen or Caillen. The root of these names can be traced back to the Latin word "columba," meaning "dove."
Coley first emerged as a distinct name during the Middle Ages in parts of Britain and Ireland, where Celtic names were prevalent. It was likely a familiar and affectionate form used to address those named Colin, much like modern nicknames like Colly or Cole.
While the name Coley does not appear to have any direct historical references in ancient texts or religious scriptures, its root name Colin has been found in various medieval records and chronicles from the British Isles.
One of the earliest recorded examples of the name Coley can be found in the 13th century, when a Coley de Stourton was documented as a landowner in Wiltshire, England. Another early instance was Coley de Kenardington, who lived in Kent, England, in the late 13th century.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the first name Coley. Among them are:
1. Coley Bailey (1889-1976), an American baseball player who played for the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox in the early 20th century.
2. Coley Blanchard (1895-1971), an American football player and coach who played for and later coached the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in the 1920s and 1930s.
3. Coley Arcoleo (1898-1976), an Italian-American mobster and member of the Chicago Outfit who was active during the Prohibition era.
4. Coley Wallace (1937-2017), an American professional golfer who won several tournaments on the PGA Tour in the 1960s and 1970s.
5. Coley McCrath (1946-2011), an American singer-songwriter and guitarist who was a member of the folk-rock band Bonnie Raitt and Friends.
While the name Coley may not be as widely used today as it once was, it holds a rich history and heritage rooted in the Celtic cultures of the British Isles, from its earliest origins as a diminutive form of the name Colin.
People
Coley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Coley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Coley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Coley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 1,643 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Coley 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 208,615 US residents.
Is Coley a common name?
We classify Coley as "Rare". It ranks above 92.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 2,361 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Coley most popular?
The single biggest year for Coley was 2008, when 42 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Coley is about 40 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Coley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 1,510 people with the name Coley, or 0.50 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #9,276 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 Coley 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 Coley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Coley on both sides of the split. Of the 1,505 people counted with this name, 1,120 were male (74.4%) and 385 were female (25.6%). 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 Coley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Coley is White at 75.6%. The next largest groups are Black (18.2%) 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 Coley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Coley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 75.6% (1,142 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 Coley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Coley a male name?
Yes, 85.6% of people registered as Coley 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 Coley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Coley 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 Coley 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 Coley as a first name?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.