# Wheatley (surname)

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

An English surname from Old English. Derived from the place name

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | English |
| Type | place, taken from where an ancestor lived or came from |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 12,520 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,875 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 24,660 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.5% (12,097 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Old English hwǣte (“wheat”) + lēah (“clearing”). Equivalent to wheat + -ley (“lea”). Identical to Whatley.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Wheatley 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) | 85% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 11% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.0% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.4% |
| Two or more races | 1.6% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Wheatley in the United Kingdom and the United States.

## People named Wheatley

- Bill Wheatley, basketball player (1909–1992)
- Jonathan Wheatley, British engineer
- Francis Wheatley, (1747 - 1801) English painter (1747–1801)

## Similar surnames

Whitley, Whatley, Whittle, Whiteley, Watley, Whitely, Waddell, Woodall, Whitlow, Woodley, Weddle, Waddle.

## 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.