Parley
Masculine · “a negotiation”
Parley is overwhelmingly a boys’ name — 687 boys against 6 girls since 1880.
Parley is a word about talking, and its American peak in 1880 has a specific home: Utah. Parley P. Pratt was one of the original apostles of the Latter-day Saint movement, killed in 1857, and his name became a standard one in Mormon families for generations. The word itself comes from French.
How old is the name Parley?
Parley was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Parley alive today was born around 1945, making them about 80 years old. About 300 people named Parley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Parley most popular?
Parley peaked in 1880, reaching #640 nationally. Today it ranks #6143, 5,503 places below that high. See the whole 1880 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From parabola to Parley
The story of Parley
Parley Parker Pratt was born in New York in 1807, joined the Latter-day Saint movement in 1830, and became one of the first Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; he was a prolific writer, a missionary in Britain and South America, and was murdered in Arkansas in 1857. Utah's Parley's Canyon is named for him. Mormon naming has a strong tradition of honoring early church figures, and Parley, Orson, Heber, Brigham and Hyrum all appear in American records concentrated in Utah and Idaho. The 1880 peak sits with that cohort.
Meaning
a negotiation; a talking-together
Old French parlee is the past participle of parler, 'to speak', from Late Latin parabolare — which comes from parabola, a comparison or parable, from Greek. So the ordinary French verb for speaking descends from the Greek word for a parable, by way of church Latin. English took parley in the fifteenth century for a negotiation under truce, particularly a military one. The derivation is settled and unusually well documented.
How the name formed
- parabola
- parler
- parley
- Parley
Pronouncing Parley
PAR-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first, exactly as the ordinary word. There is no competing saying and nobody has to be taught it.
Nicknames for Parley
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
- 191921 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #640reached in 1880
- Change vs 2022
- +133.3%14 in 2025, from 6
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.
Parley in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Utah.
Parleys among us
people named Parley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 122,005 born in 2025 was named Parley
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
Parley 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
Parley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Parley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It never needs to be spelled, because the word is in every English dictionary.
- The route from a Greek parable to a French verb to an English truce is a genuinely good story.
- It has a documented and specific American history.
- It is an ordinary English word and appears in sentences unrelated to the bearer.
- The Latter-day Saint association is strong in the intermountain West.
- Its American curve is nineteenth-century, which places a bearer's generation.
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What they receive
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Parley
Masculine · #6143 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Parleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 300 people named Parley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Parley in 2025?
- Parley ranks #6143 among US boy names in 2025, with 14 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Parley?
- About 1 in every 122,005 US boys born in 2025 was named Parley — 14 in all.
- Will my child share the name Parley with classmates?
- Parley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Parley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ruel#6143 · Cornell#6143 · Vasco#6143 · Kemper#6143 · Yates#6143 · Roark#6143 · Raja#6143 · Orville#6143
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Parley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Parley and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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