Chesley
Recorded 1880–2025 · United States
Chesley was most popular in 1923, when 48 American babies were given the name — ranking #2,040 that year. In 2025 it ranked #15,103, with 11 births. Across 1880–2025 the Social Security Administration has recorded 2,919 people named Chesley.
Chesley over time
How old is the name Chesley?
The Social Security Administration’s records begin in 1880, and Chesley is already there in that first year — so the name is older than the record and these figures cannot date it. It has been recorded in 139 of the 146 years since.
How many people are named Chesley?
The Social Security Administration has recorded 2,919 American births named Chesley between 1880 and 2025. That is recorded US births, not a world population — it counts people issued a Social Security number at birth in the United States. Of those, roughly 1,612 are estimated to be alive today.
How many babies were named Chesley in 2025?
11 American babies were named Chesley in 2025, ranking #15,103 that year.
Is Chesley getting more or less popular?
Chesley is too rare for a direction to mean much. It averaged 11 births a year across 2021–2025 against 16 a year a decade earlier — at these counts a single baby moves the percentage, and any year under five births is withheld at source.
Measured on recorded births. American births overall have fallen since 2007, so most established names lose births over any recent decade — a name can shed births and still hold its rank. Compare the rank above, which is measured against the other names of the same year.
Is Chesley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Across the whole record Chesley is a unisex name — 21.4% of the 2,919 Americans given it were girls and 78.6% were boys. It changed hands: since 1992 it has gone mainly to girls, having gone mainly to boys before that. In births since 2016 it is 57% girls and 43% boys.
Counted from every US birth the Social Security Administration recorded under this name, so it reflects use rather than opinion. A name given to fewer than five babies of one sex in a year is withheld at source and is not counted.
How old is someone named Chesley?
Roughly 1,612 Americans named Chesley are alive today — 55% of everyone ever recorded with the name. The median is 42 years old, and half are between 30 and 60. That is a wide band, the mark of a name in steady use across generations rather than a passing fashion.
An estimate, not a count. Recorded births are carried forward through the Social Security Administration’s 2023 period life table, by age and sex. That table describes mortality in one recent year, so it credits the oldest cohorts with today’s survival rather than the harsher rates they actually lived through — the further back a name peaked, the more this will overstate how many remain. It counts people issued a Social Security number at birth, not immigrants who arrived later.
Where Chesley is most concentrated
How much more common the name is in each state than across the country as a whole.
Explore further
See Chesley on the interactive charts
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Source: U.S.A. Social Security Administration. Years 1880–2025. namelegacy.org