Seeley
A masculine given name of English origin meaning "seat by the willow tree".
Name Census estimates that about 638 living Americans carry the first name Seeley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 75.8% of registrations being male. The average person named Seeley today is around 10 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Seeley births was 2016 (55 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Seeley. 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 Seeley with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
638
~ 1 in 537,233 Americans
Peak year
2016
55 babies that year
Average age
10
years old
2024 SSA rank
#6,108
Tracked since 1914
Census
Seeley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 528 people with the first name Seeley, which placed it at #19,834 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
#19,834
National first-name rank
People counted
528
528 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
84.8% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Seeley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Seeley is White at 84.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.4%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Seeley 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 Seeley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White84.8% · 448
- Two or more races6.4% · 34
- Hispanic or Latino6.1% · 32
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.9% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native0.9% · 5
- Black or African American0.8% · 4
Gender
Gender distribution for Seeley
Seeley is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 654 total registrations, 496 (75.8%) were male and 158 (24.2%) were female.
Seeley as a male name
- Ranked #6,108 in 2024
- 15 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (40 births)
Seeley as a female name
- Ranked #13,237 in 2023
- 7 female births in 2023
- Peak: 2015 (15 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Seeley on both sides of the split. Of the 532 people counted with this name, 343 were male (64.5%) and 189 were female (35.5%).
Popularity
Seeley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Seeley from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 6 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 455 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Seeley remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Seeley 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 Seeley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Seeleys live
Origin
Meaning and history of Seeley
The given name Seeley originated from an Old English surname derived from the word "sele," meaning a hall, house, or dwelling. It was a common occupational surname given to those who lived in or managed a hall or large estate. The name can be traced back to the 11th century in England, where it was first recorded as "Selie" or "Seli."
In the Middle Ages, the name Seeley was often associated with nobility or affluent landowners who owned manors or estates. It was a name that carried a sense of prestige and status during that era. Over time, it transitioned from a surname to a given name, particularly among families with connections to the landed gentry.
One of the earliest recorded historical figures with the name Seeley was Sir John Seeley, a prominent English landowner and Member of Parliament who lived from 1568 to 1616. He was known for his involvement in the colonization of Virginia and served as a member of the Virginia Company.
Another notable bearer of the name was Seeley Muddiman (1735-1818), an English clergyman and academic who served as the Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge from 1789 until his death.
In the 19th century, Seeley Booth (1791-1869) was a renowned British actor and theatre manager who helped popularize several Shakespearean plays during his career.
The name also appeared in the United States, with Seeley Woodworth (1785-1842) being a notable American printer and publisher from Connecticut who was influential in the early days of the American publishing industry.
Another American figure with the name was Seeley Mudd (1835-1924), a wealthy industrialist and philanthropist from California who made significant contributions to educational institutions, including Mudd College, which was named in his honor.
While the name Seeley has its roots in Old English and was historically associated with nobility and landowners, it has since become a more widely used given name across various cultures and backgrounds.
People
Seeley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Seeley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with S
Other first names starting with S with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Seeley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Seeley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 638 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Seeley 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 537,233 US residents.
Is Seeley a common name?
We classify Seeley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 86.8% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 654 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Seeley most popular?
The single biggest year for Seeley was 2016, when 55 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Seeley is about 10 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Seeley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 528 people with the name Seeley, or 0.17 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,834 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 Seeley 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 Seeley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Seeley on both sides of the split. Of the 532 people counted with this name, 343 were male (64.5%) and 189 were female (35.5%). 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 Seeley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Seeley is White at 84.8%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (6.4%) and Hispanic (6.1%). 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 Seeley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Seeley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 84.8% (448 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 Seeley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Seeley a male name?
Yes, 75.8% of people registered as Seeley 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 Seeley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Seeley 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 Seeley 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 Seeley as a first name?
For a quick modern take, check how many people share the name Seeley on our sister site HowManyOfMe.org.