Harley
From English meaning "meadow of hares" or "hare's field".
Name Census estimates that about 54,727 living Americans carry the first name Harley. It sits at #397 in the overall ranking, outside the top 50 but still well-represented. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 57.1% of registrations being male. The average person named Harley today is around 26 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Harley births was 2017 (1,932 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Harley. 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 Harley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Harley started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Harley sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
55K
~ 1 in 6,263 Americans
Peak year
2017
1,932 babies that year
Average age
26
years old
2024 SSA rank
#397
Tracked since 1880
Census
Harley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 43,970 people with the first name Harley, which placed it at #980 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
#980
National first-name rank
People counted
44K
43,970 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
14.6
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
80.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Harley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harley is White at 80.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.6%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Harley 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 Harley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White80.2% · 35,284
- Hispanic or Latino8.6% · 3,768
- Two or more races5.1% · 2,254
- Black or African American3.1% · 1,375
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.9% · 815
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.1% · 474
Gender
Gender distribution for Harley
Harley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 70,909 total registrations, 40,499 (57.1%) were male and 30,410 (42.9%) were female.
Harley as a male name
- Ranked #1,017 in 2024
- 218 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1994 (789 births)
Harley as a female name
- Ranked #397 in 2024
- 795 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2017 (1,531 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Harley on both sides of the split. Of the 43,968 people counted with this name, 21,617 were male (49.2%) and 22,351 were female (50.8%).
Popularity
Harley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Harley from the 1880s through to the 2020s, spanning 15 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 14,528 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Harley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Harley 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 Harley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Harleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 50 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Harley, while Wyoming, Rhode Island, Delaware recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 1,248 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Harley
The name Harley is of English origin, derived from the Old English words "hara" meaning "hare" and "leah" meaning "meadow" or "clearing." It's believed to have originated as a surname referring to a meadow or clearing where hares were found.
In its earliest recorded use, the name Harley appeared as a surname in the Domesday Book of 1086, a survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror. The entry referred to a place called "Herleia" in Nottinghamshire.
One of the earliest documented instances of Harley as a first name dates back to the 13th century. A man named Harley de Mascy was mentioned in records from Cheshire, England, in 1230.
Throughout history, several notable individuals have borne the first name Harley. One of the most famous was Sir Harley Granville-Barker (1877-1946), an English actor, director, and playwright. He was a prominent figure in the early 20th century and helped establish the modern approach to Shakespearean productions.
Another notable Harley was Harley Earl (1893-1969), an American automotive designer and engineer. He was the visionary behind the iconic designs of many classic cars from General Motors, including the Chevrolet Corvette and the Cadillac tailfins.
In the world of literature, Harley Granville-Barker (1910-1986), an English writer and critic, made significant contributions to the study of Shakespeare's works. He was also a respected playwright and novelist.
Harley Parker (1915-1992) was an American professional baseball player who played for the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Browns in the 1940s. He was known for his defensive skills as an outfielder.
Harley Hotchkiss (1927-2011) was an American businessman and entrepreneur who founded several successful companies, including Hotchkiss Associates and Hotchkiss Domestic LLC. He was known for his innovative approach to product development and marketing.
People
Harley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Harley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with H
Other first names starting with H with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Harley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Harley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 54,727 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Harley 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 6,263 US residents.
Is Harley a common name?
We classify Harley as "Uncommon". It ranks above 99.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 70,909 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Harley most popular?
The single biggest year for Harley was 2017, when 1,932 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Harley is about 26 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Harley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 43,970 people with the name Harley, or 14.56 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #980 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 Harley 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 Harley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Harley on both sides of the split. Of the 43,968 people counted with this name, 21,617 were male (49.2%) and 22,351 were female (50.8%). 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 Harley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Harley is White at 80.2%. The next largest groups are Hispanic (8.6%) and Two or More Races (5.1%). 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 Harley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Harley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 80.2% (35,284 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 Harley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Harley a male name?
Yes, 57.1% of people registered as Harley 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 Harley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Harley 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 Harley 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 Harley as a first name?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Harley, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.