# Bley (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/bley/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | German |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 1,260 |
| US rank (2010) | 20,910 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 245,036 people |
| Change since 2000 | -0.3% (1,264 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From the German occupational surname, from Middle High German bli (“lead”), from Old High German blio.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Bley in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 92% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 1.2% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 3.6% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.9% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.6% |
| Two or more races | 1.5% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Bley in the United States.

## People named Bley

- Carla Bley, American jazz composer, pianist, organist and bandleader (1936–2023)

## Similar surnames

Bailey, Blue, Boley, Bly, Bewley, Bale, Blea, Bowley, Bouley, Bayley, Baley, Bleau.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.