Langley
From the Old English words "lang" and "ley", meaning long meadow or clearing.
Name Census estimates that about 756 living Americans carry the first name Langley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 80.0% of registrations being female. The average person named Langley today is around 18 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Langley births was 2015 (45 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Langley. 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
756
~ 1 in 453,379 Americans
Peak year
2015
45 babies that year
Average age
18
years old
2019 SSA rank
#7,772
Tracked since 1907
Census
Langley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 827 people with the first name Langley, which placed it at #14,280 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
#14,280
National first-name rank
People counted
827
827 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.3
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
81.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Langley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Langley is White at 81.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.5%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). 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 Langley 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 Langley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White81.5% · 674
- Black or African American6.5% · 54
- Two or more races4.6% · 38
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.6% · 30
- Hispanic or Latino2.7% · 22
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.1% · 9
Gender
Gender distribution for Langley
Langley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 815 total registrations, 163 (20.0%) were male and 652 (80.0%) were female.
Langley as a male name
- Ranked #8,596 in 2019
- 9 male births in 2019
- Peak: 1928 (9 births)
Langley as a female name
- Ranked #7,772 in 2024
- 14 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (38 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Langley on both sides of the split. Of the 823 people counted with this name, 232 were male (28.2%) and 591 were female (71.8%).
Popularity
Langley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Langley from the 1900s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 350 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2010s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Langley 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 Langley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Langleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Langley, while North Carolina, Georgia, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 6 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Langley
The name Langley has its origins in the Old English language. Derived from the words "lang" meaning long and "leah" meaning a meadow or clearing in a forest, it was originally a place name referring to a long meadow or clearing. The name dates back to the Anglo-Saxon period in England, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Langley can be found in the Domesday Book, a record of landholdings commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086. The entry mentions a place called "Langelei" in Hertfordshire, England. This suggests that Langley was already in use as a place name by the late 11th century.
The name Langley gained popularity as a given name during the Middle Ages. One of the earliest known individuals with the name Langley was Sir John Langley, a 14th-century English nobleman and military commander who fought in the Hundred Years' War. He was born around 1330 and died in 1375.
Another notable figure in history with the name Langley was Thomas Langley, an English prelate who served as the Bishop of Durham and Lord Chancellor of England in the early 15th century. He was born around 1363 and died in 1437.
In the field of science, Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American astronomer and aviation pioneer, made significant contributions to the development of heavier-than-air flight. He was born in 1834 and died in 1906.
In the realm of literature, Walter Langley was a prominent English Victorian artist and writer known for his genre paintings depicting rural life. He was born in 1852 and died in 1922.
Another notable individual was Batty Langley, an English gardener and architectural writer who lived in the 18th century. He was born in 1696 and his works, such as "Ancient Architecture, Restored and Improved" (1742), influenced Georgian architecture and landscape design.
While the name Langley has its roots in Old English and was initially a place name, it has become a given name in its own right, with several notable historical figures bearing this name over the centuries.
People
Langley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Langley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with L
Other first names starting with L with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Langley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Langley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 756 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Langley 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 453,379 US residents.
Is Langley a common name?
We classify Langley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 88.2% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 815 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Langley most popular?
The single biggest year for Langley was 2015, when 45 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Langley is about 18 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Langley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 827 people with the name Langley, or 0.27 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #14,280 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 Langley 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 Langley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Langley on both sides of the split. Of the 823 people counted with this name, 232 were male (28.2%) and 591 were female (71.8%). 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 Langley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Langley is White at 81.5%. The next largest groups are Black (6.5%) and Two or More Races (4.6%). 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 Langley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Langley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 81.5% (674 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 Langley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Langley a female name?
Yes, 80.0% of people registered as Langley 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 Langley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Langley 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 Langley 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 common is the name Langley?
For a quick modern estimate, our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers that in one glance, with the living-bearer count front and centre.