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    The surname Priestley

    An English place surname, carried by 1,914 people in the United States.

    2 syllables Soundex P623

    Priestley: #15,325 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#10Martinez#100Jimenez#1,000Archer Priestley #15,325, 1,914 people Priestley: #15,325 of 162,253 surnames in the 2010 US Census #1Smith#160,975Doriott#100Jimenez Priestley #15,325, 1,914 people
    Every surname held by 100 or more people in the 2010 US Census, most common on the left (162,253 in all). Priestley is more common than 90.6% of them.

    Origin

    English origin

    Habitational surname from aby of various minor places in North Yorkshire, from Old English prēost (“priest”) + lēah (“wood clearing, meadow, leigh”). Equivalent to priest + -ley (“lea”).

    Priestley 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 1,914 people named Priestley in the United States in 2010, about 1 in every 161,309 Americans. That is down 1.2% since 2000, when the Census counted 1,937.

    #15,325
    rank among US surnames
    1,914
    people in 2010
    0.7
    per 100,000 Americans
    -1.2%
    change since 2000 (was #14,212)
    RankSurnamePeople1 in
    #15,318Quisenberry1,916161,141
    #15,322Catano1,915161,225
    #15,325Irick1,914161,309
    #15,328Goudeau1,913161,393

    Who is named Priestley

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

    77% of people named Priestley identified as white (not Hispanic), 17% as Black (not Hispanic) and 2.3% as two or more races.

    • White (not Hispanic) 77%
    • Black (not Hispanic) 17%
    • Two or more races 2.3%
    • Hispanic or Latino (any race) 1.9%
    The Census suppresses very small shares to protect privacy; Asian & Pacific Islander, Native American are not shown.

    Compare: most common surnames among white Americans.

    Spellings and sound-alikes

    Useful when a record has your ancestor under another spelling

    Variant spellings

    Surnames that sound like Priestley

    Priestley has the Soundex code P623, the code US census indexes have used since the 1930s. Every surname with code P623.

    Other English surnames

    All 1,446 English surnames

    Questions

    Where does the surname Priestley come from?
    Habitational surname from aby of various minor places in North Yorkshire, from Old English prēost (“priest”) + lēah (“wood clearing, meadow, leigh”). Equivalent to priest + -ley (“lea”).
    How common is the surname Priestley?
    1,914 people in the United States had the surname Priestley in the 2010 Census, about 1 in every 161,309 Americans. It ranked 15,325th of 162,253 surnames.
    What ethnicity is the surname Priestley?
    In the 2010 Census, 77% of people named Priestley identified as white (not Hispanic), and 17% as Black (not Hispanic).
    What type of surname is Priestley?
    Priestley is a place surname, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from.
    Is the surname Priestley getting more or less common?
    Less common. 1,937 people carried it in the 2000 Census and 1,914 in 2010, down 1.2%.
    What are other spellings of Priestley?
    Presley and Pressly.