Robley
An English name derived from Robert, meaning "bright fame".
Name Census estimates that about 124 living Americans carry the first name Robley. The name is used almost exclusively for boys. The average person named Robley today is around 75 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Robley births was 1945 (14 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Robley. 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.
Key insights
- • The typical person named Robley is about 75 years old today, placing it firmly among the names of earlier generations. Most living Robleys were born before 1961.
People living today
124
~ 1 in 2,764,148 Americans
Peak year
1945
14 babies that year
Average age
75
years old
1972 SSA rank
#4,864
Tracked since 1908
Census
Robley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 269 people with the first name Robley, which placed it at #31,704 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
#31,704
National first-name rank
People counted
269
269 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
87.7% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Robley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Robley is White at 87.7%. The next largest groups are Black (6.3%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Robley 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 Robley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White87.7% · 236
- Black or African American6.3% · 17
- Two or more races4.1% · 11
- Hispanic or Latino1.5% · 4
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.4% · 1
Popularity
Robley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Robley from the 1900s through to the 1970s, spanning 8 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1930s, with 75 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1930s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Robley 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 Robley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Robleys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Robley
The given name Robley is an English name with origins dating back to the 16th century. It is believed to be a variant of the name Robert, which itself derives from the Germanic elements "hrod" meaning "fame" and "berht" meaning "bright." The earliest recorded use of the name Robley can be traced to the late 1500s in parts of England.
One of the earliest known bearers of the name was Robley Williams, an English soldier who fought in the English Civil War during the 1640s. He served under Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarian forces and played a role in several key battles, including the Battle of Naseby in 1645.
In the 18th century, a notable figure named Robley Dunglison (1798-1869) made his mark as a renowned physician and professor. Born in England, he later emigrated to the United States and served as a professor of medicine at the University of Virginia and Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.
Another prominent individual with the name Robley was Robley D. Evans (1846-1912), an American naval officer who served in the United States Navy during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He played a significant role in the Spanish-American War and later achieved the rank of Rear Admiral.
In the realm of sports, Robley Cook (1918-2003) was a British Olympic rower who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. He was part of the British rowing team that won a silver medal in the coxless pairs event.
Moving into the 20th century, Robley E. George (1911-1994) was an American chemical engineer and inventor. He is best known for his work in the development of synthetic rubber during World War II, which was crucial for the war effort and later had significant industrial applications.
While the name Robley has never been exceedingly common, it has maintained a presence throughout history, carried by individuals from various walks of life, including military figures, academics, athletes, and inventors. Despite its relative rarity, the name has left its mark across different eras and cultures.
People
Robley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Robley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with R
Other first names starting with R with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Robley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Robley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 124 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Robley 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 2,764,148 US residents.
Is Robley a common name?
We classify Robley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 67.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 362 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Robley most popular?
The single biggest year for Robley was 1945, when 14 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Robley is about 75 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Robley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 269 people with the name Robley, or 0.09 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #31,704 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 Robley 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 Robley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Robley leans strongly male. 247 people counted with this name were male (92.9%), compared with 19 female bearers (7.1%). 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 Robley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Robley is White at 87.7%. The next largest groups are Black (6.3%) and Two or More Races (4.1%). 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 Robley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Robley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 87.7% (236 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 Robley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Robley a male name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Robley 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 Robley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Robley 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 Robley 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 share the name Robley?
Want to know how many people share the name Robley? HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, puts the living-bearer count front and centre.