Skip to content
Name Lineage

    The surname Morley

    An English place surname, carried by 11,028 people in the United States.

    2 syllables Soundex M640 Also a first name

    Morley: #3,275 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer#10,001Dubon Morley #3,275, 11,028 people Morley: #3,275 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Morley #3,275, 11,028 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Morley is more common than 98% of them.

    Origin

    English origin

    From Old English mor (“moor”) + leah (“wood”). Equivalent to moor + -ley (“lea”).

    Morley 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 11,028 people named Morley in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 27,997 Americans. That is up 2.0% since 2000, when the Census counted 10,815.

    #3,275
    rank among US surnames
    11,028
    people in 2010
    3.7
    per 100,000 Americans
    +2%
    change since 2000 (was #3,072)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #3,267Grooms11,04527,953
    #3,268Barba11,04327,958
    #3,270Freitas11,04127,964
    #3,271Byrnes11,03927,969
    #3,272Ness11,03727,974
    #3,273Estevez11,03227,986
    #3,274Alanis11,02927,994

    Who is named Morley

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

    91% of people named Morley identified as white (not Hispanic), 3.4% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.9% as Hispanic or Latino (any race).

    • White (not Hispanic) 91%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 3.4%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 2.9%
    • Two or more races 1.4%
    • Asian and Pacific Islander 0.6%
    • American Indian and Alaska Native 0.5%

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Famous Morleys

    9 notable people on Wikidata, most written-about first

    • Edward W. Morley
      American physical chemist, 1838–1923
    • Bob Morley
      Australian actor, born 1984
    • Robert Morley
      British actor (1908–1992)
    • Christopher Morley
      American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet (1890–1957)
    • Karen Morley
      American film actress (1909-2003)
    • Sylvanus Morley
      American archaeologist, epigrapher, Mayanist scholar, and WWI spy for the U.S. (1883–1948)
    • Julia Morley
      British beauty pageant organizer, born 1939
    • Henry Morley
      British academic (1822–1894)
    • Michael D. Morley
      American mathematician (1930–2020)

    Notable Morleys come mostly from the United States (5), the United Kingdom (2) and Australia (1).

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Surnames that sound like Morley

    Morley has the Soundex code M640, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code M640.

    Other English surnames

    All 1,446 English surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Morley come from?
    From Old English mor (“moor”) + leah (“wood”). Equivalent to moor + -ley (“lea”).
    How common is the surname Morley?
    11,028 people in the United States had the surname Morley in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 27,997 Americans. It ranked 3,275th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Morley?
    In the 2010 Census, 91% of people named Morley identified as white (not Hispanic), and 3.4% as Black (not Hispanic).
    Who is the most famous person named Morley?
    Edward W. Morley, American physical chemist, followed by Bob Morley.
    Where is the surname Morley most common?
    Wikidata records people named Morley in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia and 1 other country.
    What type of surname is Morley?
    Morley is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
    Is the surname Morley getting more or less common?
    More common. 10,815 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 11,028 in 2010, up 2.0%.
    Is Morley also a first name?
    Yes. Morley 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.