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The surname Harley

An English place surname, carried by 12,186 people in the United States.

Pronounced /ˈhɑɹli/ 2 syllables Soundex H640 Also a first name

Harley: #2,943 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Harley #2,943, 12,186 people Harley: #2,943 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Harley #2,943, 12,186 people
Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Harley is more common than 98.2% of them.

Origin

English origin

From Old English hær (“rock”) or hara (“hare”) + lēah (“wood, clearing”). Equivalent to hare + -ley (“lea”).

Harley is a place surname: taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.

One of 1,446 English surnames on this site.

Origin from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How common it is

2010 US Census

There were 12,186 people named Harley in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 25,336 Americans. That is up 6.8% since 2000, when the Census counted 11,409.

#2,943
rank among US surnames
12,186
people in 2010
4.1
per 100,000 Americans
+6.8%
change since 2000 (was #2,886)
RankSurnamePeople1 in
#2,939Farnsworth12,20325,301
#2,940Herrick12,20225,303
#2,942Nunes12,19125,326
#2,943Harley12,18625,336

Who is named Harley

Race and Hispanic origin as people reported it in the 2010 Census

53% of people named Harley identified as white (not Hispanic), 39% as Black (not Hispanic) and 3.2% as two or more races.

  • White (not Hispanic) 53%
  • Black (not Hispanic) 39%
  • Two or more races 3.2%
  • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.5%
  • American Indian and Alaska Native 2.4%
  • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.5%

Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

Famous Harleys

1 notable person on Wikidata, most written-about first

  • Thomas Harley
    American and Canadian ice hockey player, born 2001

Spellings and sound-alikes

Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

Variant spellings

Surnames that sound like Harley

Harley has the Soundex code H640, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code H640.

Other English surnames

Questions

Where does the surname Harley come from?
From Old English hær (“rock”) or hara (“hare”) + lēah (“wood, clearing”). Equivalent to hare + -ley (“lea”).
How common is the surname Harley?
12,186 people in the United States had the surname Harley in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 25,336 Americans. It ranked 2,943rd of 162,253 surnames.
What ethnicity is the surname Harley?
In the 2010 Census, 53% of people named Harley identified as white (not Hispanic), and 39% as Black (not Hispanic).
Who is the most famous person named Harley?
Thomas Harley, American and Canadian ice hockey player.
Where is the surname Harley most common?
Wikidata records people named Harley in Canada.
How do you pronounce Harley?
Harley is /ˈhɑɹli/, 2 syllables.
What type of surname is Harley?
Harley is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
Is the surname Harley getting more or less common?
More common. 11,409 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 12,186 in 2010, up 6.8%.
What are other spellings of Harley?
Hurley.
Is Harley also a first name?
Yes. Harley is used as a first name as well as a surname; its first-name page has the meaning and how many babies were given it.