Dudley
From an Old English surname meaning "wood clearing".
Name Census estimates that about 4,795 living Americans carry the first name Dudley. It is a predominantly male name (99.0% of registrations). The average person named Dudley today is around 66 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Dudley births was 1931 (286 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Dudley. 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 Dudley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Although Dudley is used almost entirely for boys, the SSA data does show 120 girls registered with the name since 1880.
- • The typical person named Dudley is about 66 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Dudleys were born before 1970.
People living today
4.8K
~ 1 in 71,482 Americans
Peak year
1931
286 babies that year
Average age
66
years old
2024 SSA rank
#4,890
Tracked since 1880
Census
Dudley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,348 people with the first name Dudley, which placed it at #3,744 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
#3,744
National first-name rank
People counted
5.3K
5,348 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
71.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Dudley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dudley is White at 71.7%. The next largest groups are Black (20.9%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Dudley 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 Dudley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White71.7% · 3,837
- Black or African American20.9% · 1,119
- Two or more races2.5% · 133
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 132
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.6% · 87
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.7% · 40
Gender
Gender distribution for Dudley
Dudley leans heavily male at 99.0% of total registrations, but 120 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Dudley as a male name
- Ranked #8,471 in 2024
- 9 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1931 (279 births)
Dudley as a female name
- Ranked #4,890 in 1950
- 6 female births in 1950
- Peak: 1928 (9 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dudley leans strongly male. 5,215 people counted with this name were male (97.6%), compared with 127 female bearers (2.4%).
Popularity
Dudley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Dudley from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1920s, with 1,995 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1920s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Dudley 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 Dudley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Dudleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 35 states and territories. Louisiana, Texas, New York recorded the most babies named Dudley, while New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 199 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Dudley
The name Dudley has its origins in Old English and is derived from the words "dud" meaning "people" and "leah" meaning "clearing" or "meadow". It was originally a placename, referring to a settlement or village located in a meadow or clearing inhabited by people.
The earliest recorded use of the name Dudley dates back to the 8th century, when it appeared in the Cartularium Saxonicum, a collection of Anglo-Saxon charters and records. In these documents, the name was spelled "Dudelei" or "Dudeleg".
One of the earliest and most notable people to bear the name Dudley was Dudley, Earl of Warwick, who lived from 1428 to 1471. He was a prominent English nobleman and military commander during the Wars of the Roses.
Another famous Dudley was Sir Robert Dudley, born in 1573, who was an English navigator, explorer, and cartographer. He is best known for his work in mapping the world's oceans and developing innovative navigational techniques.
In the 17th century, Robert Dudley, born in 1616, was an English nobleman and courtier who served as the Earl of Leicester. He was a prominent figure during the reign of King Charles II.
Later on, in the 18th century, Dudley Woodbridge, born in 1701, was an American jurist and politician who served as a judge and as a member of the Connecticut General Assembly.
In the 19th century, Dudley Bradstreet, born in 1789, was an English mathematician and inventor who made significant contributions to the fields of geometry and mechanics.
Throughout its history, the name Dudley has been associated with various notable figures from different fields, reflecting its enduring popularity and versatility as a given name.
Notable bearers
Famous people named Dudley
People
Dudley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Dudley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with D
Other first names starting with D with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Dudley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Dudley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,795 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Dudley 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 71,482 US residents.
Is Dudley a common name?
We classify Dudley as "Rare". It ranks above 96.5% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 11,983 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Dudley most popular?
The single biggest year for Dudley was 1931, when 286 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Dudley 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 Dudley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,348 people with the name Dudley, or 1.77 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,744 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 Dudley 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 Dudley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Dudley leans strongly male. 5,215 people counted with this name were male (97.6%), compared with 127 female bearers (2.4%). 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 Dudley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Dudley is White at 71.7%. The next largest groups are Black (20.9%) and Two or More Races (2.5%). 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 Dudley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Dudley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 71.7% (3,837 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 Dudley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Dudley a male name?
Yes, 99.0% of people registered as Dudley 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 Dudley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Dudley 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 Dudley 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 Dudley as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people have the name Dudley, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.