Tenley
Tenley was given to 72 girls in 2025, #2,481 among girls’ names; 6,859 Americans have been recorded with it since 1953 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 6,770 Americans named Tenley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 13 years old and half are between 9 and 15.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Tenley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Tenley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Tenley is “a female given name transferred from the surname.”
From Tineley in Northumberland or Teenley in West Yorkshire.
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Tenley?
#2,481 among girls’ names, 2025
Tenley fell from #671 in 2015 to #2,481 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.24 to 0.04 per 1,000.
736 babies in 2011, the peak
Tenley peaked in 2011, when 736 girls were given it, #425 among girls’ names. The 72 births of 2025 are 10% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 72 | #2,481 | 0.04 |
| 2024 | 90 | #2,133 | 0.06 |
| 2023 | 117 | #1,760 | 0.07 |
| 2022 | 173 | #1,354 | 0.11 |
| 2021 | 188 | #1,255 | 0.11 |
| 2020 | 237 | #1,054 | 0.15 |
| 2019 | 279 | #949 | 0.17 |
| 2018 | 361 | #755 | 0.21 |
| 2017 | 376 | #749 | 0.22 |
| 2016 | 569 | #549 | 0.32 |
Every recorded year (67)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 427 | #671 | 0.24 |
| 2014 | 458 | #626 | 0.26 |
| 2013 | 517 | #563 | 0.29 |
| 2012 | 583 | #522 | 0.33 |
| 2011 | 736 | #425 | 0.42 |
| 2010 | 672 | #460 | 0.38 |
| 2009 | 60 | #2,932 | 0.03 |
| 2008 | 67 | #2,750 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 54 | #3,211 | 0.03 |
| 2006 | 58 | #2,974 | 0.03 |
| 2005 | 58 | #2,857 | 0.03 |
| 2004 | 64 | #2,615 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 79 | #2,198 | 0.04 |
| 2002 | 59 | #2,635 | 0.03 |
| 2001 | 13 | #8,148 | 0.01 |
| 2000 | 9 | #10,666 | under 0.01 |
| 1999 | 13 | #7,673 | 0.01 |
| 1998 | 10 | #9,209 | 0.01 |
| 1997 | 9 | #9,735 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 15 | #6,361 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 11 | #8,029 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 14 | #6,624 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 15 | #6,230 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 11 | #8,015 | 0.01 |
| 1991 | 11 | #7,938 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 8 | #10,112 | under 0.01 |
| 1989 | 10 | #7,980 | 0.01 |
| 1988 | 13 | #6,252 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 13 | #5,901 | 0.01 |
| 1986 | 8 | #8,456 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 7 | #9,212 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 6 | #10,292 | under 0.01 |
| 1983 | 11 | #6,181 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 13 | #5,506 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 11 | #6,282 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 25 | #3,404 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 6 | #10,103 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 11 | #5,936 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 9 | #6,842 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 10 | #6,010 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 7 | #7,899 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 6 | #8,330 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 11 | #5,071 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 6 | #7,392 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 5 | #7,518 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 12 | #3,929 | 0.01 |
| 1963 | 13 | #3,779 | 0.01 |
| 1962 | 20 | #2,803 | 0.01 |
| 1961 | 19 | #2,943 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 18 | #2,978 | 0.01 |
| 1959 | 10 | #4,270 | under 0.01 |
| 1958 | 16 | #3,068 | 0.01 |
| 1957 | 11 | #3,910 | 0.01 |
| 1956 | 25 | #2,242 | 0.01 |
| 1955 | 11 | #3,760 | 0.01 |
| 1954 | 6 | #5,686 | under 0.01 |
| 1953 | 12 | #3,462 | 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Tenley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Tenley has been given almost only to girls: 5 boys in 67 years of records.
Girls and boys named Tenley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Tenley, and how old are they?
6,770 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 6,859 Americans ever recorded as Tenley. The median Tenley alive today is 13 years old; half are between 9 and 15.
The 2020 Census counted 5,696 people named Tenley (5,664 women and girls, 32 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 5,977 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 133 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 101 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 172 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 2,520 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 3,840 |
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 Tenley born?
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 6 | #3,257 | 0.6× |
| Pennsylvania | 5 | #1,610 | 0.9× |
Where Tenley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Tenley is most over-represented in Wisconsin: since 1953 it was given 2.4 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 Tenley 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 3 names spelled alike, given to 7,222 babies since 1880, Tenley is the most given (95% of them). In 2025 it was given to 72 of their 77 babies (94%), 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 Tenley
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 Tenley and names like it
- Compare Tenley and TenleeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sTenley peaked in 2011.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Tenley since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Tenley: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2011The year the most babies were named Tenley.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Tenley alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with TMost given first.