Presley
Meaning
priest's meadow
The story
Presley is an English place-surname, the priest's meadow, and for a hundred years America treated it as exactly that, a surname, under 210 a decade. Everyone knows whose. The odd, honest fact in our records is the timing of its first-name life: the climb begins in the 1990s, about 1,800, two decades after the man himself died, then 7,800, then 16,700 in the 2010s, with 9,000 so far this decade. And it changed columns on the way: this decade about 8,300 girls to 630 boys, a surname that entered the ledger as rock and roll and settled as a girls' name, the same pipeline that carried Blakely and Everleigh. Whether families hear Elvis, or just the -ley landing, the record cannot split. King, the title he wore, climbs in this same worklist batch, running just ahead; America, apparently, wants both.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Presley peaked in the 2020s.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
369 people · the #16,487 first name in Brazil · about 1 in 500,000 · median age 31
Among people named Presley living in Brazil at the 2022 census, more were born in the 1990s than in any other decade.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
When you meet Presley
Most people given the name Presley in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Presley deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Presley truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Presley fits with your family’s names and surname.
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