Oakley

At the 2020 census, 16,588 Americans bore the surname Oakley — 2,123rd out of 156,621 surnames on file. That is about one person in 18,000.

By the numbers

People: 16,588
Rank: 2,123rd
How common: 1 in 18,000
Per 100,000: 5.6

Where the name comes from

Origin Old English

From Old English Āclēa, from āc (“oak”) + lēah (“woodland clearing, glade”), thus a clearing in an oak forest; equivalent. Compare Ackley, Akeley and Oakleigh, which have the same origin.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 81.4%
Black, not Hispanic 9.7%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 4.3%
Hispanic or Latino 3.3%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.7%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.7%

Notable people called Oakley

Annie Oakley (1860–1926)American exhibition sharpshooter
Tyler Oakley (born 1989)American YouTuber
Charles Oakley (born 1963)American basketball player
Margaret Oakley Dayhoff (1925–1983)American biochemist
Ann Oakley (born 1944)British writer and academic
Matt Oakley (born 1977)English footballer
Berry Oakley (1948–1972)American bassist
Bill Oakley (born 1966)American writer and producer

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

Surnames like Oakley

Oakes
Oaks

Also a first name

Oakley has been given to 26,745 American babies as a first name since 1884, peaking in 2025. 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.