Morley
Masculine · “clearing on the moor”
Morley is given to both — 518 boys and 48 girls since 1880. See other names given to both
Morley is an English place-name, 'the clearing on the moor', and one of its bearers left music for Shakespeare. Thomas Morley's First Book of Ayres, printed in 1600, includes a setting of 'It was a lover and his lass' from As You Like It, one of the very few settings of a Shakespeare song made in the playwright's own lifetime.
How old is the name Morley?
Morley first appears in US birth records in 1909 — 116 years ago. The typical Morley alive today was born around 1930, making them about 95 years old. About 100 people named Morley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Morley most popular?
Morley peaked in 1909, reaching #1440 nationally. See the whole 1909 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Old English mōr and lēah to Morley
The story of Morley
Villages called Morley stand in Yorkshire, Derbyshire and elsewhere, and families from them took the surname. Thomas Morley was an organist at St Paul's Cathedral in London, and his Plaine and Easie Introduction to Practicall Musicke, published in 1597, was widely used to teach music in English. As an American first name, Morley follows the surname; it reaches girls through the same surname, with no separate source.
Meaning
clearing on the moor
From Old English mōr, 'moor, marshy ground', and lēah, 'clearing'. Several English towns and villages carry it, the largest in West Yorkshire.
How the name formed
- Old English mōr and lēah
- Morley, English place-name
- Morley, surname
- Morley as a given name
Pronouncing Morley
MOR-lee
Two syllables, stressed on the first.
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
- 1909
- Most boys named
- 191819 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1440reached in 1909
- Change vs 1978
- +20.0%6 in 2008, from 5
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.
Morleys among us
people named Morley 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
Morley 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
- A plain English place-name meaning, 'clearing on the moor', easy to explain in a sentence.
- A documented Elizabethan namesake in the composer Thomas Morley.
- Spelled exactly as it sounds.
- Morley is the fictional cigarette brand used by film and television prop departments, smoked most famously by the Cigarette Smoking Man in The X-Files; fans of those shows will notice.
- Nearly every child given it is a boy; a girl called Morley will meet it mostly on men, though the meaning favors neither.
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What they receive
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Morley
Masculine
Frequently asked
- How many Morleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 100 people named Morley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Morley in 2025?
- Morley is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Morley with classmates?
- Morley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More M names
The most-given names starting with M, all years combined.
Michael#21 · Matthew#32 · Mark#244 · Mason#39 · Martin#335 · Marvin#699 · Melvin#958 · Marcus#258
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Morley? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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