Wesley

Wesley: name meaning, origin & popularity

Meaning
“western meadow”
Origin
Old English
Say it
WEZ-lee · 2 syllables
Used for
Boys

From an English surname derived from a place name, from west and leah 'woodland clearing, meadow'. Strongly associated with John Wesley.

How popular is Wesley?

20241,572 per million US babies
1880192019602000
Drag the line or the slider to read any year. Values are per million US births recorded by Social Security. Records before about 1937 undercount births, so early peaks can look taller than they were.

Babies named Wesley in 20245,231

2024 rank#58 boys

Peak year2024

Total US babies since 1880245,260

Wesley is rising: use over the last five years is 1.8× what it was a decade earlier.

Names like Wesley

Variants, related forms and names with the same roots.

  • Weswestern meadow · English
  • Westonwestern settlement · Old English
  • Blakeblack; pale · Old English
  • Oakleyoak clearing · Old English
  • Edwardwealthy guardian · Old English
  • Ashtonash tree town · Old English
  • Kingstonking's town · Old English
  • Brandonbroom-covered hill · Old English

Wesley questions

What does the name Wesley mean?

Wesley means "western meadow". It comes from Old English. From an English surname derived from a place name, from west and leah 'woodland clearing, meadow'. Strongly associated with John Wesley.

Is Wesley a boy or girl name?

Wesley is mainly a boy's name in US records (99% of uses since 1880).

How popular is Wesley?

5,231 US babies were named Wesley in 2024. Its peak year was 2024.

How do you pronounce Wesley?

Wesley is usually pronounced WEZ-lee.

Birth counts: US Social Security Administration national data, 1880–2024 (names given to 5+ babies of a sex in a year). How we write meanings.