Hartley
A masculine name of English origin meaning "stag meadow" or "deer clearing".
Name Census estimates that about 2,833 living Americans carry the first name Hartley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 56.7% of registrations being female. The average person named Hartley today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Hartley births was 2024 (175 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Hartley. 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 Hartley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Hartley started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
- • Hartley sits in rare territory as a truly gender-neutral name, given to boys and girls in near-equal numbers.
People living today
2.8K
~ 1 in 120,986 Americans
Peak year
2024
175 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,482
Tracked since 1892
Census
Hartley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,238 people with the first name Hartley, which placed it at #6,968 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
#6,968
National first-name rank
People counted
2.2K
2,238 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.7
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
82.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Hartley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hartley is White at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Black (7.1%) and Hispanic (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 Hartley 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 Hartley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White82.1% · 1,837
- Black or African American7.1% · 158
- Hispanic or Latino4.8% · 108
- Two or more races4.2% · 94
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 20
Gender
Gender distribution for Hartley
Hartley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 3,652 total registrations, 1,582 (43.3%) were male and 2,070 (56.7%) were female.
Hartley as a male name
- Ranked #3,906 in 2024
- 28 male births in 2024
- Peak: 1918 (36 births)
Hartley as a female name
- Ranked #1,482 in 2024
- 147 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2024 (147 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Hartley on both sides of the split. Of the 2,225 people counted with this name, 816 were male (36.7%) and 1,409 were female (63.3%).
Popularity
Hartley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Hartley from the 1890s through to the 2020s, spanning 14 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,407 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Hartley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Hartley 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 Hartley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Hartleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 27 states and territories. Texas, California, Georgia recorded the most babies named Hartley, while Kansas, Indiana, Illinois recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 34 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Hartley
The name Hartley is an English name derived from the Old English words "heorot" meaning hart or stag, and "leah" meaning meadow or clearing. It originated as a surname in regions like Yorkshire, where the name referred to someone who lived near a meadow frequented by deer or stags.
One of the earliest recorded mentions of the name Hartley can be found in the Domesday Book of 1086, where it appears as a place name. The name gradually transitioned from a locational surname to a given name over the centuries.
In terms of historical figures bearing the name Hartley, one notable individual was David Hartley (1705-1757), an English philosopher and founder of the Associationist school of psychology. His work, "Observations on Man, his Frame, his Duty, and his Expectations," published in 1749, explored the association of ideas and the nature of human consciousness.
Another prominent figure was Jesse Hartley (1768-1849), an American lawyer and politician who served as the third Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania from 1824 to 1828.
In the realm of literature, Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849), the eldest son of the famous poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was a writer and essayist in his own right. He published works such as "Biographia Borealis" and "Poems, Songs and Sonnets."
In the world of sports, Hartley Batey (1884-1964) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward for clubs like Wolverhampton Wanderers and Preston North End in the early 20th century.
Lastly, Hartley Burr Alexander (1873-1939) was an American philosopher and educator who served as the president of Scripps College and the University of Missouri. He wrote several books on topics like metaphysics and ethics.
These are just a few examples of notable individuals throughout history who have carried the name Hartley, illustrating its longevity and widespread usage across various fields.
People
Hartley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Hartley 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
Hartley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Hartley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 2,833 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Hartley 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 120,986 US residents.
Is Hartley a common name?
We classify Hartley as "Rare". It ranks above 95% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,652 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Hartley most popular?
The single biggest year for Hartley was 2024, when 175 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Hartley is about 19 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Hartley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,238 people with the name Hartley, or 0.74 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,968 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 Hartley 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 Hartley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Hartley on both sides of the split. Of the 2,225 people counted with this name, 816 were male (36.7%) and 1,409 were female (63.3%). 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 Hartley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Hartley is White at 82.1%. The next largest groups are Black (7.1%) and Hispanic (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 Hartley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Hartley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 82.1% (1,837 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 Hartley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Hartley a female name?
Yes, 56.7% of people registered as Hartley in the SSA data are female. 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 Hartley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Hartley 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 Hartley 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 named Hartley?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people have the name Hartley at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.