Hurley
Masculine
Hurley is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 2,581 boys against 78 girls since 1880.
A hurley is the stick used in hurling, which is the oldest field game in Europe still being played. It is also an Irish surname from a completely different word, and in America the two arrived together and have been indistinguishable ever since.
How old is the name Hurley?
Hurley first appears in US birth records in 1881 — 144 years ago. The typical Hurley alive today was born around 1940, making them about 85 years old. About 1,100 people named Hurley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hurley most popular?
Hurley peaked in 1898, reaching #663 nationally. See the whole 1898 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Hurley
Hurling appears in Irish law tracts from the first millennium and in the Ulster Cycle stories before that, and it is still played by tens of thousands of people every summer. The stick, cut from ash, is a hurley. The surname is a separate thing entirely — an English rendering of a Gaelic name, of which there are several candidates, chosen by nineteenth-century clerks who wrote down what they heard. Both crossed to America, and the name at the front of an American child's certificate could be either, or could simply have been the sound the family liked.
Meaningscholars disagree
descendant of a man whose name is disputed
The Irish surname is anglicized from more than one Gaelic original, including words about the sea and about a tide. The stick's name is English and unrelated. Neither can be assigned to a particular family.
Pronouncing Hurley
HUR-lee
Two syllables with the weight at the front. There is no second reading to correct.
Nicknames for Hurley
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
- 1881
- Most boys named
- 191954 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #663reached in 1898
- Change vs 2021
- −43.8%9 in 2024, from 16
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.
Hurley in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- O hUrthuile in Irish — related form
Hurleys among us
people named Hurley are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Hurley sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
The trade-off
- Both syllables are readable, so the name is said correctly at sight.
- It works as a surname and as a first name, which suits families that use both.
- It is genuinely uncommon while being entirely legible.
- The word is also a piece of sports equipment, which Irish readers will think of first.
- The spelling is recorded for girls as well as boys in the United States.
- It reads clearly as a name of the nineteenth century.
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Hurley
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Hurleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,100 people named Hurley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hurley in 2025?
- Hurley is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Hurley with classmates?
- Hurley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More H names
The most-given names starting with H, all years combined.
Henry#5 · Harold#991 · Harry#775 · Howard#1002 · Hunter#130 · Herbert#2641 · Herman#2363 · Harvey#251
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hurley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hurley and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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