Dudley
Masculine · “Dudda's clearing”
Dudley is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 11,868 boys against 120 girls since 1880.
Dudley is Dudda's clearing — a Worcestershire place name that became one of the more powerful Tudor surnames, and then, in the twentieth century, a name with a comic register it did not ask for.
How old is the name Dudley?
Dudley was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Dudley alive today was born around 1939, making them about 86 years old. About 4,500 people named Dudley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Dudley most popular?
Dudley peaked in 1881, reaching #289 nationally. Today it ranks #10695, 10,406 places below that high. See the whole 1881 chart.
Where it comes from
From Dudda + leah to Dudley
The story of Dudley
Dudley is a town in the West Midlands, and the family that took its name from it rose spectacularly under the Tudors: John Dudley ruled England in Edward VI's minority, and his son Robert was Elizabeth I's closest favorite. The surname crossed into given-name use in the nineteenth century, and American families used it steadily, peaking around 1922.
Meaning
Dudda's clearing
From the Old English personal name Dudda plus leah, 'clearing' or 'woodland glade'. Dudda is a recorded Anglo-Saxon name whose own meaning is not recovered. The leah element is the commonest in English place names.
How the name formed
- Dudda + leah
- Dudley
Related forms: Dudly
Pronouncing Dudley
DUD-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. No variation between English accents.
Nicknames for Dudley
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1930207 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #289reached in 1881
- Change vs 2022
- −14.3%6 in 2025, from 7
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Dudley in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Dudly in English — spelling variant
Dudleys among us
people named Dudley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 284,679 born in 2025 was named Dudley
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Dudley sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Dudley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Dudley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A documented English town and a substantial Tudor dynasty stand behind it.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- The place-name structure is entirely transparent once explained.
- The clipping Dud is an English word for something that fails, which is hard to avoid.
- The name carries a comic register in British English that it did not have in the nineteenth century.
- It is strongly period-coded to the early twentieth century.
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What they receive
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Dudley
Masculine · #10695 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Dudleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,500 people named Dudley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Dudley in 2025?
- Dudley ranks #10695 among US boy names in 2025, with 6 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Dudley?
- About 1 in every 284,679 US boys born in 2025 was named Dudley — 6 in all.
- Will my child share the name Dudley with classmates?
- Dudley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Dudley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Dell#10695 · Buford#10695 · Toney#10695 · Allison#10695 · Candido#10695 · Jodie#10695 · Nora#10695 · Garnet#10695
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Dudley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Dudley and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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