Given name & surname
Wesley
“from the western meadow”
Wesley is used as a given name and a surname. One English interpretation is “from the western meadow.”
Meaning & origin
What it means
One English interpretation is “from the western meadow.”
Where it comes from
An origin associated with this spelling is English.
How it developed
From Old English west, built from English west + -leigh (“lea”).
Adapted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The story
Published U.S. birth records include this spelling as early as 1880. This is the earliest published observation available here, rather than a date for the name’s origin.
From dated birth records
Wesley through the years
- Babies since 1880
- 250,969
- 247,713 boys · 3,256 girls
- Most popular year
- 2025
- 5,679 babies
- 2025
- 5,679
- #52 for boys · #1,926 for girls
- 2021–25 vs 2016–20
- +34%
- Rising
Where it’s given
By the numbers
In 2025, this name appeared in 5,578 U.S. birth records for boys, ranking No. 52 among boys’ names. Average annual use for boys was 33.6% higher in 2021–2025 than in 2016–2020. It also appeared in 101 birth records for girls in 2025. In 2025, California had the largest reported state-level birth count for boys with this name (434). Published U.S. population figures for this spelling include 155,434 as a first name in 2020; 21,988 as a surname in 2020.
From Social Security birth records and U.S. Census name counts for this exact spelling. Other spellings are counted separately.
Wesley’s family of names
Wesley has a short form in Wes. Wesley has a related form in Westley. In English usage, Wesley has a diminutive in Wes.
Inner ring: spellings · middle: nicknames and forms · outer: across languages.
Nicknames & forms 26
Diminutives, pet forms, short forms and variants used alongside the name.
Spellings & scripts 1
The same name written differently, including transliterations into other scripts.
Across languages 4
Equivalents and cognates in other languages, plus older forms it grew from.
People named Wesley
- Wesley SneijderDutch association football player (born 1984)
- Wesley SnipesAmerican actor (born 1962)
- Wes CravenAmerican filmmaker (1939–2015)
- Wes AndersonAmerican filmmaker (born 1969)
- Wes BrownEnglish association football playerborn 1979
- Wesley ClarkUnited States Army general and 2004 Democratic Party presidential candidateborn 1944
- Wes HoolahanIrish association football playerborn 1982
- Wesley FofanaFrench footballer (born 2000)
- Wesley SoFilipino-American chess playerborn 1993
Characters named Wesley: Wesley Crusher (the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation), Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (secondary protagonist of the television series Angel), Sandman (Fictional DC Comics character).
Listed by how widely each person is written about, which says nothing about the name itself.
Similar names
If you love Wesley, these share its style, era, origin or sound, from outside its own family.
Walker
“walker of the forests” · “one who trods the cloth”
97% boys · 3% girls
Hudson
“one who is adventurous; an explorer” · “the son of Hugh; from the river”
99% boys · 1% girls
Jett
“resembling the jet-black lustrous gemstone”
98% boys · 2% girls
Woods
“a woman of the forest” · “a man of the forest”
98% boys · 2% girls
Rowan
“of the red-berry tree”
74% boys · 26% girls
Lincoln
“lake” · “from the village near the lake”
98% boys · 2% girls
Carter
“a transporter of merchandise” · “one who transports goods; one who drives a cart”
93% boys · 7% girls
Graham
“from the gravelled area; from the gray home”
>99% boys