Westley
- Pronunciation
- [Wes-tley]
- Gender
- Male
- Meaning
- From The West Meadow
- Origin
- English
About the Name Westley
Westley is an English place-name and surname meaning "from the west meadow," built from the elements west and leah, "clearing" or "meadow." A close cousin of the more common Wesley, this spelling lends the familiar name a slightly more rugged, frontier-tinged character while keeping its airy, pastoral roots — a name that evokes open fields and wide horizons with a touch of cowboy charm.
The name has enjoyed a strong, sustained recent climb. Westley first entered the US Social Security top-1000 in 2016 and rose steadily to its peak in 2024 at #656, its highest rank yet — a clear sign of a name still building momentum rather than fading, having moved from #717 in 2022 to #679 in 2023 before reaching that new high. Its rise fits the broad popularity of West- sounding boy names and a wider taste for rustic, nature-rooted choices.
Pronounced Wes-tley, the name pairs a warm two-syllable rhythm with the easy, all-American nicknames Wes and West, both of which stand comfortably on their own. Its recorded variant is Wessley, a double-s spelling that nudges the look a step further from the standard Wesley while preserving the same friendly, open-country sound. Sturdy yet gentle, Westley appeals to parents who want a name that feels both classic and freshly distinctive, rooted in the land and full of warmth.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Westley
US Popularity History (2016–2025)
Annual US births named Westley by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2025 with 453 boys named Westley (boy rank #619 that year).
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Westley Most Popular?
Average boy-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Westley the strongest states are Idaho, Oregon, Washington.
Strongest boys-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Idaho | #384 | 21 |
| 2 | Oregon | #395 | 103 |
| 3 | Washington | #448 | 158 |
| 4 | Nebraska | #462 | 17 |
| 5 | Nevada | #533 | 28 |
| 6 | Kansas | #539 | 22 |
| 7 | Utah | #556 | 59 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | #598 | 67 |
| 9 | Michigan | #613 | 96 |
| 10 | Minnesota | #627 | 78 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Westley in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
| Name | Meaning | Gender | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wessley | West Meadow. Variant Of The English Surname Westley. | Male | English |
Looking for names like Westley?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Westley to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Westley against today's most popular boys-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).