Morley

10,656 people in the United States were counted with the surname Morley in the 2020 census, making it the 3,315th most common in the country. That is about one person in 28,000.

By the numbers

People: 10,656
Rank: 3,315th
How common: 1 in 28,000
Per 100,000: 3.6

Where the name comes from

Origin Old English

From Old English mor (“moor”) + leah (“wood”). Equivalent.

Etymology from Wiktionary, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Who bears the name

How people with the surname Morley described their own race and Hispanic origin at the 2020 census:

White, not Hispanic 89.5%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.4%
Hispanic or Latino 3.2%
Black, not Hispanic 2.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.4%

Notable people called Morley

Edward W. Morley (1838–1923)American physical chemist
Bob Morley (born 1984)Australian actor
Robert Morley (1908–1992)British actor
Thomas Morley (1559–1602)English composer, organist and editor
John Morley (1838–1923)British statesman, writer and journalist
Ebenezer Cobb Morley (1831–1924)English sportsman
Christopher Morley (1890–1957)American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet
Karen Morley (1909–2003)American film actress

People named Morley with articles in the most Wikipedia languages. Data from Wikidata (CC0).

Surnames like Morley

Also a first name

Morley has been given to 566 American babies as a first name since 1909, peaking in 1918. See it as a given name.

Try it on yourself

Source: US Census Bureau, Frequently Occurring Surnames, 2020. The Census describes the file as the surnames borne by 100 or more people; rarer names are not published. The line is not quite exact, and 617 published names come in under it, the smallest at 92 people. Race and Hispanic origin are self-reported. Rates are worked out against the 298.9 million people the file's own figures are calculated on, which is fewer than the census counted in all: the difference is everyone whose surname was too rare to publish.