Chesley
The boy's name Chesley has been in the national records since 1880, with 2,919 births to its name. It is given to both boys and girls. In 2025 it ranked 7,194th. About 1,600 Chesleys are alive in the United States today, and half of them are over 41.
Popularity, 1880–2025
girls named Chesley boys named Chesley
Girls and boys called Chesley
years more girls than boys years more boys than girls
Chesley crossed from boys to girls in 1986, and has stayed there for 10 of the years counted since. At its furthest it was 70% girls, which is roughly where it still is.
The girls’ share of each year’s babies of the name, in the 51 years in which at least 25 babies got it. The line touches the middle more often than there are crossings marked: a year or two on the other side is not a name changing hands, and only a move that holds for 5 counted years and reaches 60/40 is recorded as one. All 581 names that changed sex.
By the numbers
- Total US births
- 2,919
- Estimated living today
- 1,600
- Median age today
- 41
- Peak year
- 1923
- Best rank
- 1,008th
- Rank in 2025
- 7,194th
- First recorded
- 1880
- Girls / boys
- 625 / 2,294
How old the living Chesleys are
born that year still alive today
Of the 2,919 babies given the name since 1880, about 1,600 are alive — 55 in every hundred. The dotted line is the median: half were born before 1984 and half after.
An estimate, not a count. SSA births aged forward through SSA cohort life tables, which know nothing about who left the country or arrived in it — so for a name that mostly came to America rather than being born in it, this is a floor rather than a figure. Where you fall among living Americans.
Notable Chesleys
- Chesley Sullenberger (born 1951)American commercial airline pilot
- Chesley Bonestell (1888–1986)American science fiction and space illustrator
People named Chesley with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).
Where Chesley is most common
Relative to how many babies each state records, Chesley is most concentrated in Texas (5.9×), Tennessee (5.9×).
Total births recorded in each state since 1910. Browse names by state.
Names of 1923
The most popular boys’ names the year Chesley peaked:
Related names
Chesley against another name
Two names on one chart, with the year one overtook the other.
Try it on yourself
Source: US Social Security Administration, national and state baby-name files, 1880–2025. Counts include only births registered with the SSA, and names with fewer than five births in a year are not published. The living estimate applies SSA cohort life tables to those births; it counts people born in the United States, so it misses anyone who arrived later and anyone who has left.