Salley
Salley was last recorded in 1985, when 8 babies were given it; 416 Americans have been recorded with it between 1894 and 1985 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Salley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Salley?
Unranked in 2025
Its last girls’ rank on record is #8,143, in 1985; SSA lists a name only in years with 5 or more births.
17 babies in 1952, the peak
Salley peaked in 1952, when 17 girls were given it, #2,657 among girls’ names. It was not recorded in 2025.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 8 | #8,143 | 4.6 |
| 1978 | 8 | #7,482 | 5.2 |
| 1976 | 6 | #8,967 | 4.1 |
| 1975 | 5 | #10,240 | 3.4 |
| 1973 | 7 | #7,259 | 4.8 |
| 1970 | 5 | #9,029 | 2.9 |
| 1969 | 9 | #5,370 | 5.3 |
| 1968 | 6 | #6,850 | 3.7 |
| 1964 | 7 | #5,898 | 3.7 |
| 1962 | 8 | #5,209 | 4.1 |
Every recorded year (52)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per million girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | 7 | #5,732 | 3.5 |
| 1960 | 10 | #4,403 | 4.9 |
| 1958 | 5 | #6,842 | 2.5 |
| 1957 | 6 | #5,953 | 2.9 |
| 1956 | 8 | #4,764 | 4.0 |
| 1955 | 17 | #2,822 | 8.7 |
| 1954 | 8 | #4,583 | 4.1 |
| 1953 | 7 | #4,950 | 3.7 |
| 1952 | 17 | #2,657 | 9.2 |
| 1951 | 13 | #3,082 | 7.2 |
| 1950 | 9 | #3,911 | 5.3 |
| 1949 | 13 | #2,970 | 7.6 |
| 1948 | 8 | #4,150 | 4.7 |
| 1947 | 6 | #5,198 | 3.4 |
| 1946 | 13 | #2,861 | 8.3 |
| 1944 | 9 | #3,332 | 6.8 |
| 1943 | 5 | #5,254 | 3.6 |
| 1942 | 16 | #2,297 | 11.8 |
| 1941 | 7 | #3,891 | 5.8 |
| 1940 | 8 | #3,462 | 7.0 |
| 1939 | 11 | #2,719 | 10.0 |
| 1938 | 6 | #4,266 | 5.4 |
| 1937 | 7 | #3,737 | 6.6 |
| 1936 | 9 | #3,062 | 8.7 |
| 1935 | 8 | #3,380 | 7.6 |
| 1934 | 5 | #4,860 | 4.8 |
| 1932 | 5 | #4,989 | 4.7 |
| 1930 | 8 | #3,615 | 7.1 |
| 1927 | 6 | #4,720 | 5.0 |
| 1926 | 7 | #4,244 | 5.9 |
| 1925 | 8 | #3,976 | 6.6 |
| 1924 | 6 | #4,963 | 4.8 |
| 1923 | 6 | #4,887 | 5.0 |
| 1922 | 5 | #5,670 | 4.2 |
| 1920 | 6 | #4,892 | 5.0 |
| 1919 | 8 | #3,757 | 7.1 |
| 1918 | 6 | #4,735 | 5.2 |
| 1917 | 8 | #3,662 | 7.4 |
| 1916 | 8 | #3,500 | 7.7 |
| 1915 | 9 | #3,099 | 9.1 |
| 1914 | 7 | #3,131 | 9.2 |
| 1894 | 6 | #1,465 | 26.9 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Salley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Salley has been recorded only for girls: SSA lists no boys with the name in 52 years of records (it lists a name only in years with 5 or more babies of a sex).
Girls and boys named Salley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Salley, and how old are they?
An estimated 211 Americans named Salley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (51% of everyone recorded); the median is 71 years old and half are between 62 and 78. An estimate from SSA’s births and life tables, not a count.
The 2020 Census counted 438 people named Salley (438 women and girls, 0 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 246 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1.8 times that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
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).
How common is the spelling Salley?
Salley is a less common spelling of Sally: SSA has recorded 416 Salley and 205,876 Sally since 1880.
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 258,693 babies since 1880, Salley is the fifth most given (<1% of them). In 2025 none of their 248 babies recorded by SSA was a Salley (SSA lists a name only with 5 or more babies of one sex).
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 Salley
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 Salley and names like it
- Compare Salley and SallyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1950sSalley peaked in 1952.
- South Carolina’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Salley since 1910.
- The top names of 1952The year the most babies were named Salley.
- The names of the Baby BoomersMost people named Salley alive today were born 1946-1964.
- Names starting with SMost given first.