Woolley

6,446 people in the United States were counted with the surname Woolley in the 2020 census, making it the 5,232nd most common in the country. That is about one person in 46,400.

By the numbers

People: 6,446
Rank: 5,232nd
How common: 1 in 46,400
Per 100,000: 2.2

Where the name comes from

Origin Old English

Usually from Old English wulf (“wolf”) + lēah (“woodland clearing, glade frequented by wolves”). Equivalent.

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

Who bears the name

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

White, not Hispanic 87.1%
Two or more races, not Hispanic 3.9%
Hispanic or Latino 3.9%
Black, not Hispanic 3.8%
Asian or Pacific Islander, not Hispanic 0.8%
American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic 0.5%

Notable people called Woolley

Leonard Woolley (1880–1960)British archaeologist
Monty Woolley (1888–1963)American actor
Richard van der Riet Woolley (1906–1986)British astronomer royal
Hannah Woolley (1622–1675)17th century English writer

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

Surnames like Woolley

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.