Stanley

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Boy · Old English place name

Stanley

Say it: STAN-lee

Try it with your surname

Meaning

From an English surname and place, Old English stan 'stone' and leah 'clearing'.

Certainscholars agree on this meaning.

Popular after the explorer Henry Morton Stanley in the late 1800s.

Its wave through time

Fading since the 1910s

In the United States

024618801900192019401960198020002020Peak 1916per 1,000 babies of that sex
  • 301,353 babies given this name since 1880
  • At its height in 1916, about 1 in 174 boys
  • 334 babies in 2020

Through the ages

  1. Victorian and Belle Époque1837 to 1914
  2. The Modern Age1880 to today

Used by

AmericanEnglish

Famous bearers

  • Stanley Kubrick, American film director

Names worth a look

Where this comes from

  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
  • National census records of the 19th and 20th centuries
  • United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source

Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.

Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.