Whitley
Whitley is given to both girls and boys: 420 girls and 88 boys were given it in 2025 (#677 among girls’ names and #1,823 among boys’, #1,155 among all names counting both); 8,991 Americans have been recorded with it since 1914 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 8,820 Americans named Whitley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 6 and 33.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Whitley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
How popular is Whitley?
#677 among girls’ names, 2025
Whitley rose from #1,144 in 2015 to #677 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 0.12 to 0.26 per 1,000.
521 babies in 1988, the peak
Whitley peaked in 1988, when 521 babies were given it (508 girls, #446 among girls’ names). The 508 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 98% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 420 | #677 | 0.26 |
| 2024 | 417 | #684 | 0.26 |
| 2023 | 383 | #736 | 0.24 |
| 2022 | 316 | #884 | 0.19 |
| 2021 | 320 | #859 | 0.20 |
| 2020 | 271 | #946 | 0.17 |
| 2019 | 281 | #943 | 0.17 |
| 2018 | 262 | #998 | 0.15 |
| 2017 | 258 | #1,008 | 0.15 |
| 2016 | 251 | #1,047 | 0.14 |
Every recorded year (41)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 222 | #1,144 | 0.12 |
| 2014 | 197 | #1,239 | 0.11 |
| 2013 | 170 | #1,377 | 0.10 |
| 2012 | 157 | #1,456 | 0.09 |
| 2011 | 156 | #1,453 | 0.09 |
| 2010 | 121 | #1,737 | 0.07 |
| 2009 | 106 | #1,978 | 0.06 |
| 2008 | 75 | #2,535 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 75 | #2,507 | 0.04 |
| 2006 | 81 | #2,351 | 0.04 |
| 2005 | 82 | #2,237 | 0.04 |
| 2004 | 92 | #2,016 | 0.05 |
| 2003 | 83 | #2,120 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 99 | #1,818 | 0.06 |
| 2001 | 90 | #1,936 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 104 | #1,700 | 0.06 |
| 1999 | 104 | #1,616 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 110 | #1,530 | 0.06 |
| 1997 | 105 | #1,549 | 0.06 |
| 1996 | 127 | #1,339 | 0.07 |
| 1995 | 140 | #1,225 | 0.08 |
| 1994 | 182 | #1,021 | 0.10 |
| 1993 | 206 | #926 | 0.11 |
| 1992 | 236 | #842 | 0.13 |
| 1991 | 365 | #618 | 0.19 |
| 1990 | 432 | #548 | 0.23 |
| 1989 | 480 | #491 | 0.26 |
| 1988 | 508 | #446 | 0.29 |
| 1987 | 50 | #2,196 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 8 | #8,500 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 6 | #10,386 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Whitley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 8,991 Americans recorded as Whitley, 91% are girls and 9% boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Whitley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Whitley, and how old are they?
8,820 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 8,991 Americans ever recorded as Whitley. The median Whitley alive today is 14 years old; half are between 6 and 33.
The 2020 Census counted 5,835 people named Whitley (5,373 women and girls, 462 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 6,414 born in the U.S. The Census count is 9% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 5 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 13 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 2,760 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,690 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 4,350 |
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 Whitley born?
The states with the most babies named Whitley are Texas, Missouri and Tennessee, with 34% of its births recorded by state in 2025; Missouri and Tennessee are not among the ten states with the most births.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 73 | #529 | 1.2× |
| Missouri | 44 | #195 | 1.8× |
| Tennessee | 34 | #274 | 2.3× |
| Georgia | 33 | #451 | 2.0× |
| Oklahoma | 26 | #150 | 2.3× |
| North Carolina | 24 | #599 | 1.5× |
| Florida | 24 | #711 | 0.5× |
| South Carolina | 17 | #309 | 1.5× |
| Indiana | 15 | #478 | 1.3× |
| Kentucky | 14 | #329 | 3.3× |
Where Whitley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Whitley is most over-represented in Kentucky: since 1914 it was given 3.3 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 Whitley 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 10,003 babies since 1880, Whitley is the most given (90% of them). In 2025 it was given to 508 of their 564 babies (90%), 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 Whitley
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 Whitley and names like it
- Compare Whitley and WhitleeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1980sWhitley peaked in 1988.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Whitley since 1910.
- The top names of 1988The year the most babies were named Whitley.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Whitley alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with WMost given first.