Marley
surname · Latin script
Meaning: person from Marley, a name of several English places: e.g
Recorded for both men and women· direction only, no split published
/mɑɹli/(machine-generated) pronunciation, model-generated
Marley is a surname written in the Latin script, with more bearers in the United States than in any other country.
- GBUnited Kingdom≈1 in 21K(inferred from the name graph)
- AUAustralia≈1 in 33K
- USUnited States1 in 53K
carrying the name, as counted by its national register where one exists and as Mondonomo estimates it elsewhere (marked ≈ and "est." on hover). One hue, darker where it is more common; hover a country for its figure.
- United States (measured from records)
- Sources
- 381 (measured from records)
- ≈1 in 21K (inferred from the name graph)
6,220 people, 2010
Highest-authority source
United Kingdom, est.
measured from records inferred from the name graph
Meaning & origin(measured from records)
person from Marley, a name of several English places: e.g. glade at a boundary, pleasant glade, or glade frequented by martens
Sources 1
- Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history]
Attested in 1 language in the etymology graph.
Where in the world(measured from records)
Marley counted together with the spellings and other-language forms grouped with it. Where a register counted another spelling, the row names it.
Sorted by bearers: national registers' counts, and Mondonomo's estimates (≈, est.) where no register counts.
| Country | Most common spelling | Sources | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | 6,220 | 1 in 53K | 24K | Marley | 381 |
| GB United Kingdom | ≈3,100 est. | ≈1 in 21K | 26 | Marley | 206 |
| NG Nigeria | ≈2,400 est. | ≈1 in 90K | — | Marley | 26 |
| BR Brazil | ≈1,900 est. | ≈1 in 109K | 5.6K | — | 4 |
| FR France | ≈980 est. | ≈1 in 69K | 4.7K | — | 4 |
| AU Australia | ≈760 est. | ≈1 in 33K | 49 | Marley | 105 |
| NZ New Zealand | ≈120 est. | ≈1 in 42K | 24 | — | 34 |
| MQ Martinique | ≈19 est. | ≈1 in 23K | 5 | — | — |
| GP Guadeloupe | ≈17 est. | ≈1 in 26K | 5 | — | — |
6,220 people counted by Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010, 2010. Exact figures are national registers' own counts, while figures marked ≈ and est. are Mondonomo’s estimates, counted from our sources and calibrated against those registers; hover one for how far to trust it in that country. A dash means neither exists.
Registers cited: Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010; Census Bureau — First Name Frequency 2020 by sex; NRS — Baby names Scotland full list (1974–present); IBGE — names by decade (Kaggle mirror); INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (1900–2024); QLD BDM — Top 100 Baby Names Queensland (1960–present); DIA — Baby name popularity (1900–present); INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (births by department), dpt 971 (Guadeloupe); INSEE — Fichier des prénoms (births by department), dpt 972 (Martinique). Figures without a register are Mondonomo estimates; see Methodology.
Country figures for a list of names, at full precision, are available under licence rather than by scraping this table (how that works).
Other recorded senses(measured from records)
Marley is also recorded in 5 other lexicons, as a different name or as an ordinary word. These are senses of the spelling, not of the name above.
In English, from Marley (Devon, Kent, West Riding of Yorkshire), Marley Farm in Brede (Sussex), or Mearley (Lancashire); first attested Thomas de Mardele 1208 Pl (Yorkshire)
as a nameA Dictionary of English Surnames
In English, places so called, for example in Devon, Kent, and W Yorks. According to Ekwall, the first element of these placenames is respectively OE (ge)mcere boundary, my rig pleasant, and meard (pine) marten. The second element in each case is OE leak wood, clearing. Vars.: Marlee, Marlow.
as a nameA dictionary of surnames
In English, A hamlet in Kingston parish, Canterbury district, Kent, England (OS grid ref TR1850).
as a wordkaikki.org Wiktionary extract (IPA + transliterations)
In English, Bob, Jamaican reggae musician
as a namePronouncing Dictionary of Proper Names
Foresta di gioia
as a nameIl grande libro dei nomi per bebè. Significato, origini, curiosità. Oltre 7000 nomi per bambine e bambini Significato,…
Ordered by how much of this spelling's record each language holds, so a sense from a language the name is barely used in sits last rather than first.
Notable people with this name(measured from records)
- J. Peverell Marleyb. 1901USAmerican cinematographer (1899–1964)
- John Marleyb. 1907USAmerican actor (1907-1984)
- Bob Marleyb. 1945JMJamaican reggae musician (1945–1981)
- Cedella Marleyb. 1967JMJamaican singer, dancer, fashion designer, actress, and entrepreneur
- Ziggy Marleyb. 1968JMJamaican reggae musician (born 1968)
- Stephen Marleyb. 1972USJamaican American reggae musician
- Rohan Marleyb. 1972JMSon of Bob Marley
- Damian Marleyb. 1978JMJamaican DJ, singer and rapper
- Natasha Marleyb. 1984GBBritish porn actress
- Skip Marleyb. 1996JMJamaican singer and songwriter
The ten people covered by the most Wikipedia language editions — a proxy for cross-cultural notability, which favours historical and Western figures over equally prominent contemporary ones — shown by birth year. Source: Wikidata (CC0).
How to address them(machine-generated)
Evidence(measured from records)
Attested in 86 sources across 43 countries.
| Country | Register | Year | Count | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2010 | 2010 | 6.2K | #5,591 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2000 | 2000 | 6.1K | #5,271 |
| US United States | Census Bureau — Surname Frequency 2020 | 2020 | 5.9K | #5,637 |
Reference works 7
- Dictionary of American Family Names
- The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland
- Nederlandse FamilienamenBank (Dutch surname bank; ex-Meertens Instituut, now CBG)2007
- Wikipedia given-name tokens
- Wikipedia surname tokens
- Wikidata name items (native-script + romanized given/family names)
- jeantosti.com — Dictionnaire des noms de famille de France et d'ailleurs (Jean Tosti)
These works list the name; their figures are licensed and are not reproduced here.
Register rows as of the 2026-10-09 data build.
Frequently asked questions
- Where does the name Marley come from?
- person from Marley, a name of several English places: e.g. glade at a boundary, pleasant glade, or glade frequented by martens Recorded by Encyclopedia of surnames [the complete companion to tracing your names history].
- What does the name Marley mean?
- Recorded meaning: person from Marley, a name of several English places: e.g.
- In which country does Marley have the most bearers?
- In the United States, the national register counted about 6.2 thousand people named Marley, more than in any other country we hold, where it is most often spelled marley.
- How do you pronounce Marley?
- A machine transcription gives /mɑɹli/ (IPA) for English.
- How common is the name Marley?
- In the United States, the national register counted 6,220 people named Marley in 2010, about 1 in 53 thousand residents.
What do you want to know about Marley?
Nobody replies to these one by one, but what readers ask decides what these pages answer next.
Query this name via API
curl -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" https://api.mondonomo.ai/api/v1/name-graph/marleyThe payload this page is built from: spellings and scripts, countries and languages, related names, and the registers that attest the form. It takes a free API key (1,000 requests a day), which returns what this page shows everyone; the full country table, every register citation and the year-by-year series come with a licensed key, as does bulk access.
About this data
measured from records inferred from the name graph machine-generated
These figures come from the data snapshot of and will change as it is rebuilt.
Statistics are aggregated from the Mondonomo name corpus; related names and etymology are inferred from the name graph; pronunciation and any machine-marked transliterations are model-generated. Read how the numbers are made, including their known failure modes, and where the data comes from.
Reference works we consult — surname dictionaries, official name registers, Wikidata and Wiktionary — are named directly, beside the claims they support. The per-country source counts also include datasets of person records: we publish how many there are and their authority tier, but not their names.
Cite this page Mondonomo, “Marley”. Data snapshot 2026-10-10.