Chesney
Chesney was given to 61 girls in 2025, #2,785 among girls’ names; 2,821 Americans have been recorded with it since 1970 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 2,790 Americans named Chesney and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 18 years old and half are between 10 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Chesney by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Chesney mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Chesney is “a male given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the senses “oak grove” (meaning) and “oak” (kassanos).
From Norman place names meaning “oak grove” (cognate to French chênaie), from Picard quesne, from Vulgar Latin *cassanus, probably from Gaulish kassanos (“oak”).
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Chesney?
#2,785 among girls’ names, 2025
Chesney fell from #2,627 in 2015 to #2,785 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 38.1 to 38.0 per million.
141 babies in 2005, the peak
Chesney peaked in 2005, when 141 babies were given it (131 girls, #1,555 among girls’ names). The 61 births of 2025 are 43% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 61 | #2,785 | 38.0 |
| 2024 | 55 | #2,981 | 33.9 |
| 2023 | 66 | #2,651 | 41.1 |
| 2022 | 79 | #2,351 | 48.2 |
| 2021 | 83 | #2,234 | 50.6 |
| 2020 | 62 | #2,691 | 38.4 |
| 2019 | 64 | #2,687 | 38.1 |
| 2018 | 58 | #2,879 | 34.1 |
| 2017 | 81 | #2,288 | 46.9 |
| 2016 | 88 | #2,193 | 49.7 |
Every recorded year (53)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 68 | #2,627 | 38.1 |
| 2014 | 74 | #2,447 | 41.4 |
| 2013 | 88 | #2,140 | 50.1 |
| 2012 | 92 | #2,083 | 52.2 |
| 2011 | 66 | #2,668 | 37.5 |
| 2010 | 76 | #2,457 | 42.8 |
| 2009 | 92 | #2,167 | 50.1 |
| 2008 | 89 | #2,222 | 47.1 |
| 2007 | 91 | #2,183 | 47.3 |
| 2006 | 110 | #1,851 | 57.9 |
| 2005 | 131 | #1,555 | 70.9 |
| 2004 | 114 | #1,701 | 62.1 |
| 2003 | 80 | #2,168 | 43.8 |
| 2002 | 85 | #2,029 | 47.3 |
| 2001 | 77 | #2,128 | 42.8 |
| 2000 | 51 | #2,820 | 28.1 |
| 1999 | 50 | #2,743 | 28.2 |
| 1998 | 63 | #2,250 | 35.7 |
| 1997 | 41 | #2,937 | 23.6 |
| 1996 | 47 | #2,631 | 26.8 |
| 1995 | 31 | #3,504 | 17.6 |
| 1994 | 29 | #3,712 | 16.2 |
| 1993 | 28 | #3,790 | 15.5 |
| 1992 | 44 | #2,737 | 23.9 |
| 1991 | 23 | #4,360 | 12.3 |
| 1990 | 22 | #4,395 | 11.6 |
| 1989 | 19 | #4,701 | 10.3 |
| 1988 | 18 | #4,682 | 10.1 |
| 1987 | 20 | #4,149 | 11.5 |
| 1986 | 16 | #4,766 | 9.3 |
| 1985 | 11 | #6,093 | 6.4 |
| 1984 | 13 | #5,264 | 7.7 |
| 1983 | 12 | #5,515 | 7.2 |
| 1982 | 17 | #4,378 | 10.0 |
| 1981 | 11 | #5,947 | 6.6 |
| 1980 | 13 | #5,284 | 7.8 |
| 1979 | 7 | #8,190 | 4.4 |
| 1978 | 13 | #4,978 | 8.5 |
| 1977 | 7 | #7,686 | 4.6 |
| 1976 | 9 | #6,128 | 6.1 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,283 | 4.8 |
| 1973 | 5 | #8,640 | 3.4 |
| 1970 | 7 | #6,461 | 4.0 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Chesney a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 2,821 Americans recorded as Chesney, 94% are girls and 6% boys. In 2025 it went to 61 girls; SSA lists no boys with it that year (fewer than 5, or none).
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Chesney: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Chesney, and how old are they?
2,790 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 2,821 Americans ever recorded as Chesney. The median Chesney alive today is 18 years old; half are between 10 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 2,264 people named Chesney (2,076 women and girls, 188 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,394 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 64 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 363 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,380 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 978 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Chesney born?
The states with the most babies named Chesney are Texas, Virginia and Tennessee, with 100% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Virginia and Tennessee are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 6 | #3,004 | 0.9× |
| Virginia | 6 | #1,069 | 0.4× |
| Tennessee | 5 | #1,165 | 2.3× |
Where Chesney is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Chesney is most over-represented in Tennessee: since 1970 it was given 2.3 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Chesney with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 6,474 babies since 1880, Chesney is the most given (44% of them). In 2025 it was given to 61 of their 82 babies (74%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Chesney
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Chesney and names like it
- Compare Chesney and ChaneyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sChesney peaked in 2005.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Chesney since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Chesney: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2005The year the most babies were named Chesney.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Chesney alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with CMost given first.