Wesley

At the 2020 census, 21,988 Americans bore the surname Wesley — 1,592nd out of 156,621 surnames on file. That is about one person in 13,600.

By the numbers

People: 21,988
Rank: 1,592nd
How common: 1 in 13,600
Per 100,000: 7.4

Where the name comes from

Origin Old English

Several places in England, from Old English west (“west”) + lēah (“wood, clearing”). Equivalent.

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

Who bears the name

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

Black, not Hispanic 48.1%
White, not Hispanic 39.1%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 5.7%
Hispanic or Latino 3.4%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 2.5%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 1.2%

Notable people called Wesley

John Wesley (1703–1791)founder of the Methodist movement
Paul Wesley (born 1982)American actor
Charles Wesley (1707–1788)English Methodist and hymn writer
Rutina Wesley (born 1979)American actress
Wesley (born 1996)Brazilian association football player
Christopher Wesley (born 1987)German hockey player
Fred Wesley (born 1943)American jazz trombonist
Susanna Wesley (1669–1742)Mother of Methodism

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

Surnames like Wesley

Also a first name

Wesley has been given to 250,969 American babies as a first name since 1880, 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.