Talley
Surname derived from a Norman-French location name.
Name Census estimates that about 371 living Americans carry the first name Talley. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 81.3% of registrations being female. The average person named Talley today is around 28 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Talley births was 2000 (17 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Talley. 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
371
~ 1 in 923,866 Americans
Peak year
2000
17 babies that year
Average age
28
years old
1975 SSA rank
#5,382
Tracked since 1914
Census
Talley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 556 people with the first name Talley, which placed it at #19,177 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
#19,177
National first-name rank
People counted
556
556 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
76.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Talley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Talley is White at 76.4%. The next largest groups are Black (12.1%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Talley 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 Talley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White76.4% · 425
- Black or African American12.1% · 67
- Two or more races4.0% · 22
- Hispanic or Latino3.8% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.3% · 13
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 8
Gender
Gender distribution for Talley
Talley leans heavily female at 81.3% of total registrations, but 81 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Talley as a male name
- Ranked #5,382 in 1975
- 6 male births in 1975
- Peak: 1919 (9 births)
Talley as a female name
- Ranked #10,975 in 2024
- 9 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2000 (17 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Talley on both sides of the split. Of the 556 people counted with this name, 161 were male (29.0%) and 395 were female (71.0%).
Popularity
Talley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Talley from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2000s, with 111 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 2000s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Talley 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 Talley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Origin
Meaning and history of Talley
The name Talley is believed to have originated from the Old English language, derived from the word "tālian," which means "to count" or "to reckon." This connection suggests that the name may have been initially used to refer to someone whose occupation involved counting or record-keeping.
In the early medieval period, the name Talley was primarily found in areas of England, particularly in the southern and central regions. It is likely that the name was initially used as a surname or occupational descriptor before eventually becoming a given name.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Talley can be found in the Domesday Book, a comprehensive survey of land and property conducted in 1086 under the reign of William the Conqueror. The Domesday Book mentions several individuals with the surname "Talley" or variations thereof, indicating that the name was already in use by the late 11th century.
Throughout history, there have been several notable individuals who bore the name Talley. One of the earliest recorded was Sir John Talley, an English knight who lived in the 14th century and served as a member of the household of King Edward III. Sir John Talley participated in several military campaigns during the Hundred Years' War.
In the 16th century, there was Thomas Talley, an English mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the study of celestial mechanics. He was born in 1535 and served as the Savilian Professor of Geometry at the University of Oxford.
During the American Revolutionary War, there was Silas Talley, a soldier and patriot who fought in the Continental Army. Silas Talley was born in 1751 in Virginia and participated in several key battles, including the Battle of Monmouth in 1778.
In the realm of literature, one notable figure was William Talley, an English poet and dramatist who lived in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Talley was known for his works such as "The Tragedy of Mariam" and "The History of Scanderbeg," which explored themes of love, betrayal, and historical figures.
Another prominent individual with the name Talley was Sarah Talley, an American educator and activist who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in 1858, Sarah Talley was a pioneer in the field of vocational education and worked tirelessly to promote educational opportunities for women and underprivileged communities.
These are just a few examples of the many individuals throughout history who have borne the name Talley, each leaving their mark in various fields and contributing to the rich tapestry of human achievement.
People
Talley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Talley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with T
Other first names starting with T with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Talley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Talley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 371 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Talley 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 923,866 US residents.
Is Talley a common name?
We classify Talley as "Very Rare". It ranks above 81.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 433 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Talley most popular?
The single biggest year for Talley was 2000, when 17 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Talley is about 28 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Talley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 556 people with the name Talley, or 0.18 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #19,177 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 Talley 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 Talley?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Talley on both sides of the split. Of the 556 people counted with this name, 161 were male (29.0%) and 395 were female (71.0%). 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 Talley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Talley is White at 76.4%. The next largest groups are Black (12.1%) and Two or More Races (4.0%). 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 Talley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Talley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 76.4% (425 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 Talley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Talley a female name?
Yes, 81.3% of people registered as Talley 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 Talley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Talley 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 Talley 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 the name Talley?
If you just want to know how many people share the name Talley, HowManyOfMe.org gives you the headline number in one glance.