Name Awesome

Burley

Boys' name

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Burley has been given to 2,350 babies in the U.S. since 1880. It was used fewer than 5 times in 2025, so it doesn't appear in the latest year's list — today it's a genuinely uncommon pick. Its peak year was 1921, with 58 recorded.

Babies named Burley, 2020

1 in 477,000

Burley over time, 1880–2025

BoysGirls
020406018801900192019401960198020002020

Based on births in the U.S. Babies given the name each year. Hover the chart — or focus it and use the arrow keys — for any year. Gaps mean the name was given fewer than 5 times that year; these counts are unpublished.

Burley: meaning, origin, and history

Meaning and linguistic origin unconfirmed

Deeper origin not confirmed in the cited records

What Burley means

Burley is a given name.

The naming story behind Burley

Wikidata records Burley as a male given name. The entity identifier is Q64026858, and the classification was checked on 2026-10-20. The spelling matches a source label or alias exactly, without removing accents or linking it to a name merely because the letters look similar.

A database classification is different from an etymological explanation, so those questions remain open in the short meaning.

A modern root explanation needs an additional naming or linguistic reference.

American usage and historical context

In the United States, 2,310 boys were recorded with the name Burley between 1880 and 2020. Its highest annual count was 58 in 1921; its best national rank was #548 in 1884.

In the United States, 40 girls were recorded with the name Burley between 1900 and 1940. Its highest annual count was 8 in 1925; its best national rank was #1,965 in 1900.

Sources & methodologyReferences, data & attribution

Meaning, origin, and language notes draw on the references below.

American popularity figures use published Social Security Administration records for this exact spelling. Counts below five for a name, sex, and year are omitted.

How common is Burley?

Burley had fewer than 5 recorded uses in 2025, so these figures use 2020, the last year it was published.

Among all babies, 2020
1 in 477,000
7 of 3,342,313 births
Among boys only
1 in 247,000
<0.01% of boys
Rank, 2020
Unranked
Fewer than 5 uses
Coin-flip room size
330,960 kids
Even odds of a second one

Where Burley sits on the popularity scale

Rarest published (5 a year)#1 — Liam (20,818)

Chance at least one other child shares the name

If the other children were drawn at random from the 2020 national name distribution. Real classrooms cluster by region and community, so treat these as a floor, not a ceiling.

Class of 20Under 1%
Class of 30Under 1%
Grade of 100Under 1%
School of 500Under 1%

Put another way: gather 330,960 children born in 2020 and it's an even bet that one of them is another Burley. In a class of 30 the chance is Under 1%.

When Burleys were born

Half of everyone ever recorded as Burley was born before 1933 — so the typical Burley is around 92 today.

Median birth year
1933
About 92 years old
Biggest decade
1920s
19.4% of all use
Born in the last 25 years
1.4%
Mostly a past generation
Recorded since 1950
577
People you could plausibly meet
Choose a decade

1920s — 19.4% of all recorded uses (448).

Is Burley rising or falling?

Rank movement and count movement can disagree — the number of distinct names in use keeps growing, so a name holding a steady count still slides down the list. Both are shown.

Rank vs 1 year ago
—
Not ranked then
Rank vs 5 years ago
New entry
Not ranked then
Rank vs 10 years ago
—
Not ranked then
Births vs 10 years ago
—
Not published both years
Share of its own peak
0%
Peak was 1921 (58)
Years since peak
104
Years
Year-to-year steadiness
Shifting
18.8% average annual change
Best rank ever
#548
1884

Spellings of Burley

Burley is not the most common spelling — Harley is, with 29.3% against Burley's 1.7%.

Grouped by closeness of spelling (up to two letter changes), same sex, with a floor on all-time use. It catches Sophia/Sofia and Aiden/Ayden, and misses spellings that sound alike but look different, like Sean and Shawn.

Where Burley is used

Across 1910–2025, Burley was most concentrated in Kentucky — about 1 in 25,000 boys, against 1 in 93,839 across all states with data. It was least common in Tennessee (1 in —).

04 per 100,000

Most concentrated

  1. 1Kentucky1 in 25,000
  2. 2West Virginia1 in 33,333
  3. 3Arkansas1 in 50,000
  4. 4Virginia1 in 50,000
  5. 5Louisiana1 in 100,000
  6. 6North Carolina1 in 100,000
  7. 7Alabama1 in —
  8. 8Missouri1 in —

Shading is the share of that state's recorded boys given this name, not the raw count — otherwise the map would just show which states are biggest. Unshaded states have no published records for this period. U.S. birth records suppress state-year counts below 5; state counts therefore don't add up to the national total. Every state links to its full rankings. Burley has too little recent state data to map, so this covers all years from 1910.

Notable people named Burley

People whose public names include Burley, backed by Wikidata given-name records and ordered by linked Wikimedia pages. The name may be a middle name.

People data from Wikidata (CC0). Fame is measured, not judged — the order reflects how widely each person is documented, not the U.S. birth records popularity this page is otherwise about.

Burley by the numbers

The raw record for each sex the name is used for.

As a boy's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#548
1884
Peak year
1921
58 that year
First recorded
1880
Last recorded
2020
All-time count
2,310
Count in 2025
Under 5

As a girl's name

Rank in 2025
Unranked
Trend vs 5 yrs ago
—
Best rank ever
#1,965
1900
Peak year
1925
8 that year
First recorded
1900
Last recorded
1940
All-time count
40
Count in 2025
Under 5

Names similar to Burley

Matched on shared beginnings and endings, similar length, and comparable popularity.

BurkleyBurkeHadleyRadleyHenleyRidleyBrileyConleyKenleyHuxleyChesleyBerkleyRipleyMarleyBurhanColeyBurnellBurneyBurnieKelleyBurnisBurtonHartleyBurnett

Names with a curve like Burley

Not spelling — timing. These names rose, peaked and faded in the same years as Burley, so they read as being from the same moment even when they look nothing alike.

EarlieFurmanManleyOcieFinisVernieFoyAutherVesterOdieHeneryNorwood

Sibling names for Burley

Names from the same era and popularity tier — the two things that make a sibling set feel deliberate — skipping lookalike spellings and shared initials.

Explore around Burley

Top names of 1921, Burley's peak yearThe 1920s in fullOther names that peaked in 1884Boys' names starting with B