Huntley
Masculine · “hunter's clearing”
Huntley is given to both — 1,067 boys and 780 girls since 1880. See Huntley as a girl nameSee other names given to both
Huntley is the huntsman's clearing — hunta and leah in Old English — and Huntly in Aberdeenshire gave the Gordon earls their title.
How old is the name Huntley?
Huntley first appears in US birth records in 1925 — 100 years ago. The typical Huntley is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 1,000 people named Huntley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Huntley most popular?
Huntley peaked in 2024, reaching #1701 nationally. Today it ranks #2056, 355 places below that high. See the whole 2024 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From hunta leah to Huntley
The story of Huntley
Huntly in Aberdeenshire gave its name to the Gordon earls and marquesses, and Huntley in Gloucestershire is a separate village. The surname produced a given name in America, and Huntley appears in the registers in current use, more often masculine.
Meaning
hunter's clearing
From the Old English hunta, 'hunter' or 'huntsman', and leah, 'wood' or 'clearing'. Huntley in Gloucestershire and Huntly in Aberdeenshire are both genuine places of this construction. The elements are ordinary Old English and the reading undisputed.
How the name formed
- hunta leah
- Huntley
Related forms: Huntly · Huntly
Pronouncing Huntley
HUNT-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Huntley and Huntly are said identically.
Nicknames for Huntley
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
- 1925
- Most boys named
- 202498 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1701reached in 2024
- Change vs 2024
- −26.5%72 in 2025, from 98
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.
Huntley in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Huntly in English — spelling variant
- Huntly in Scottish — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida.
Huntleys among us
people named Huntley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 23,723 born in 2025 was named Huntley
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Nevan test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Huntley's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Nevan climbed just as high around 2004, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Nevan's path sketches the road Huntley is walking now.
Huntley 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
Where Huntley is headed
Huntley looks set to keep climbing gently, with roughly 21% more babies a year by 2030 if the current curve holds.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Huntley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Huntley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The hunter's-clearing meaning is concrete and belongs to real English and Scottish places.
- Lee is available as a short form with an enormous record.
- Two clean syllables with no pronunciation risk.
- It reads unmistakably as a surname.
- Hunter and Huntley are close enough to cause confusion.
- Huntly is the Scottish spelling and looks nearly identical.
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What they receive
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Huntley
Masculine · #2056 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Huntleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,000 people named Huntley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Huntley in 2025?
- Huntley ranks #2056 among US boy names in 2025, with 72 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Huntley?
- About 1 in every 23,723 US boys born in 2025 was named Huntley — 72 in all.
- Will my child share the name Huntley with classmates?
- Huntley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Huntley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aylan#2056 · Lake#2056 · Alfie#2056 · Jamar#2056 · Farhan#2056 · Haider#2056 · Everardo#2056 · Hernan#2056
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Huntley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Huntley and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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