Whitley
A gender-neutral English name derived from the Old English words 'hwit' and 'leah' meaning "white meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 8,260 living Americans carry the first name Whitley. It is a predominantly female name (91.1% of registrations). The average person named Whitley today is around 19 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Whitley births was 1988 (521 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Whitley. 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 Whitley with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Whitley started out as a boys' name but over the decades crossed over and is now given to girls far more often.
People living today
8.3K
~ 1 in 41,496 Americans
Peak year
1988
521 babies that year
Average age
19
years old
2024 SSA rank
#682
Tracked since 1914
Census
Whitley in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 5,843 people with the first name Whitley, which placed it at #3,539 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
#3,539
National first-name rank
People counted
5.8K
5,843 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
1.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
70.4% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Whitley
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Whitley is White at 70.4%. The next largest groups are Black (18.9%) and Two or More Races (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 Whitley 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 Whitley at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White70.4% · 4,114
- Black or African American18.9% · 1,103
- Two or more races6.1% · 356
- Hispanic or Latino2.9% · 172
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.3% · 77
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.4% · 21
Gender
Gender distribution for Whitley
Whitley leans heavily female at 91.1% of total registrations, but 755 boys have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Whitley as a male name
- Ranked #2,004 in 2024
- 77 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2023 (79 births)
Whitley as a female name
- Ranked #682 in 2024
- 417 female births in 2024
- Peak: 1988 (508 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Whitley leans strongly female. 5,373 people counted with this name were female (92.1%), compared with 462 male bearers (7.9%).
Popularity
Whitley: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Whitley from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 11 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,311 total registrations. The name continues to be given at rates close to its all-time high, suggesting it has not yet fallen out of fashion.
Babies born per year
Decades
Whitley 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 Whitley during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Whitleys live
The SSA's state-level files cover 35 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, Kentucky recorded the most babies named Whitley, while Connecticut, Colorado, Oregon recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 180 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Whitley
The name Whitley is an English surname that has been used as a given name since the 19th century. It is derived from the Old English words "hwit" meaning "white" and "leah" meaning "woodland clearing" or "meadow." The name likely originated as a place name referring to a white clearing in a forest or a grassy meadow.
The earliest recorded use of Whitley as a surname dates back to the 13th century in England. The name appears in various historical records, such as the Hundred Rolls of 1273, where it is spelled "Wyteleye." Over time, the spelling evolved to its modern form, Whitley.
One of the earliest recorded individuals with the given name Whitley was Whitley Stokes (1763-1845), an Irish scholar and lawyer. He was born in Dublin and is known for his work on Irish antiquities and legal texts.
Another notable figure was Whitley Strieber (born 1945), an American writer best known for his books on alleged encounters with extraterrestrial beings, such as "Communion" and "The Key."
In the realm of sports, Whitley Bay was the birthplace of English footballer Alan Shearer (born 1970), one of the Premier League's all-time top scorers and a former captain of the English national team.
Whitley Streiber (1907-1995) was an American film director and producer who worked on several notable films, including "The Strange Love of Martha Ivers" and "The Farmer's Daughter."
Whitley Stokes (1830-1909) was an Irish philologist and scholar of Celtic languages. He made significant contributions to the study of Old Irish and edited numerous texts, including the Cormac's Glossary and the Félire Óengusso.
While the name Whitley was more commonly used as a surname in earlier centuries, its adoption as a given name, particularly for boys, gained popularity in the late 20th century. However, its usage as a given name remains relatively uncommon compared to other English names.
People
Whitley + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Whitley as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with W
Other first names starting with W with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Whitley: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Whitley?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 8,260 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Whitley 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 41,496 US residents.
Is Whitley a common name?
We classify Whitley as "Rare". It ranks above 97.4% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 8,482 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Whitley most popular?
The single biggest year for Whitley was 1988, when 521 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Whitley 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 Whitley in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 5,843 people with the name Whitley, or 1.93 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #3,539 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 Whitley 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 Whitley?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Whitley leans strongly female. 5,373 people counted with this name were female (92.1%), compared with 462 male bearers (7.9%). 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 Whitley?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Whitley is White at 70.4%. The next largest groups are Black (18.9%) and Two or More Races (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 Whitley most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Whitley in the 2020 Census, accounting for 70.4% (4,114 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 Whitley in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Whitley a female name?
Yes, 91.1% of people registered as Whitley 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 Whitley still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Whitley 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 Whitley 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 called Whitley?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.