Grantley
An English masculine name derived from a surname meaning "great meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 168 living Americans carry the first name Grantley. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Grantley today is around 11 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Grantley births was 2014 (15 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Grantley. 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.
People living today
168
~ 1 in 2,040,204 Americans
Peak year
2014
15 babies that year
Average age
11
years old
2024 SSA rank
#5,976
Tracked since 1982
Census
Grantley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 311 people with the first name Grantley, which placed it at #28,739 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
#28,739
National first-name rank
People counted
311
311 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
53.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Grantley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Grantley is Black at 53.1%. The next largest groups are White (37.9%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Grantley 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 Grantley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American53.1% · 165
- White37.9% · 118
- Two or more races4.8% · 15
- Hispanic or Latino1.9% · 6
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.9% · 6
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.3% · 1
Popularity
Grantley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Grantley from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 96 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Grantley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Grantley 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 Grantley 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 Grantley
The given name Grantley has its origins in Old English, deriving from the elements "grand" and "leah," which together mean "grassy meadow" or "clearing in a forest." This name was most commonly found in areas of England during the Anglo-Saxon period, particularly in regions where Old English dialects were spoken.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Grantley can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, which was a comprehensive survey of land and resources in England commissioned by William the Conqueror. In this historical document, the name appears as a place name, referring to a settlement or location.
The name Grantley has been associated with several notable individuals throughout history. One of the earliest was Sir Grantley Norton (born around 1260), an English nobleman and landowner who held estates in Yorkshire. Another prominent figure was Grantley Adams (1898-1971), a Barbadian politician who served as the first Prime Minister of the West Indies Federation from 1958 to 1962.
In the realm of literature, Grantley Berkeley (1800-1881) was a British novelist and playwright who authored several works, including "The English Sportsman" and "Reminiscences of a Huntsman." Additionally, Grantley Browne (1865-1946) was a British politician and diplomat who served as the Governor of Bermuda from 1922 to 1928.
Perhaps one of the most well-known individuals with the name Grantley was Sir Grantley Herbert Adams (1898-1971), a Barbadian lawyer, politician, and statesman. He played a pivotal role in the decolonization movement in the British West Indies and served as the first Premier of Barbados from 1954 to 1958.
While the name Grantley has its roots in Old English and has been present throughout various periods of history, it remains a relatively uncommon given name in modern times. However, its rich historical background and association with notable figures continue to make it a distinctive and intriguing choice.
People
Grantley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Grantley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with G
Other first names starting with G with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Grantley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Grantley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 168 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Grantley 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 2,040,204 US residents.
Is Grantley a common name?
We classify Grantley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 71.9% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 170 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Grantley most popular?
The single biggest year for Grantley was 2014, when 15 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Grantley is about 11 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Grantley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 311 people with the name Grantley, or 0.10 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #28,739 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 Grantley 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 Grantley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Grantley leans strongly male. 313 people counted with this name were male (98.7%), compared with 4 female bearers (1.3%). 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 Grantley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Grantley is Black at 53.1%. The next largest groups are White (37.9%) and Two or More Races (4.8%). 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 Grantley most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Grantley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 53.1% (165 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 Grantley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Grantley a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Grantley 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 Grantley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Grantley 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 Grantley 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 are called Grantley?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.