Primarily a girl's name · 98% girls
Origin: EnglishAshley is a given name which was originally an Old English surname. It is derived from the Old English words æsċ and lēah and translates to "Dweller near the ash tree meadow".
From Wikipedia
In Pythagorean numerology, every letter has a value from 1 to 9. Adding the letters of Ashley yields these three numbers — a playful read on the name's character.
Ashley was the single most popular girls' name in America during 1991, and its busiest year for births was 1987 at 54,853 — the second-highest single-year figure across these four batches, behind only Jason. It has since fallen to 2,231 births at rank 124, off 37% in the past decade alone. Cumulative total 873,844, recorded from 1917 with a gap in the 1920s. The bearers divide neatly by sex and nationality: the American Ashleys are women, including Ashley Judd, born 1968, and Ashley Tisdale, while the British ones are male footballers, Ashley Cole and Ashley Young. Halsey, born 1994, is Ashley Frangipane. A name that reached number one this recently carries an almost unusable generational stamp.
Why did you choose this name — or what does it mean to you? Approved stories appear on this page.
→ See names similar to Ashley · Compare Ashley with another name → · Popular names of the 1980s · Girls names starting with A
Rank is among all girls' names registered that year.
| Year | Babies | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1917 | 5 | #4,650 |
| 1938 | 7 | #3,472 |
| 1941 | 6 | #3,988 |
| 1942 | 8 | #3,464 |
| 1943 | 10 | #3,051 |
| 1944 | 10 | #2,957 |
| 1945 | 10 | #2,927 |
| 1946 | 7 | #4,015 |
| 1947 | 11 | #3,259 |
| 1948 | 13 | #2,841 |
| 1949 | 11 | #3,191 |
| 1950 | 15 | #2,660 |
| 1951 | 15 | #2,700 |
| 1952 | 23 | #2,129 |
| 1953 | 14 | #2,931 |
| 1954 | 21 | #2,382 |
| 1955 | 8 | #4,392 |
| 1956 | 23 | #2,323 |
| 1957 | 27 | #2,123 |
| 1958 | 38 | #1,764 |
| 1959 | 37 | #1,822 |
| 1960 | 55 | #1,488 |
| 1961 | 81 | #1,224 |
| 1962 | 95 | #1,113 |
| 1963 | 108 | #1,027 |
| 1964 | 181 | #771 |
| 1965 | 216 | #669 |
| 1966 | 262 | #583 |
| 1967 | 385 | #485 |
| 1968 | 542 | #399 |
| 1969 | 641 | #361 |
| 1970 | 927 | #305 |
| 1971 | 1,163 | #255 |
| 1972 | 1,176 | #234 |
| 1973 | 1,250 | #206 |
| 1974 | 1,625 | #165 |
| 1975 | 1,989 | #138 |
| 1976 | 2,288 | #115 |
| 1977 | 2,706 | #106 |
| 1978 | 3,482 | #87 |
| 1979 | 4,448 | #67 |
| 1980 | 7,296 | #40 |
| 1981 | 8,874 | #34 |
| 1982 | 14,854 | #17 |
| 1983 | 33,291 | #4 |
| 1984 | 38,774 | #3 |
| 1985 | 47,008 | #2 |
| 1986 | 49,672 | #2 |
| 1987 | 54,853 | #2 |
| 1988 | 49,975 | #2 |
| 1989 | 47,588 | #2 |
| 1990 | 45,560 | #2 |
| 1991 | 43,477 | #1 |
| 1992 | 38,461 | #1 |
| 1993 | 34,849 | #2 |
| 1994 | 30,283 | #2 |
| 1995 | 26,606 | #2 |
| 1996 | 23,678 | #3 |
| 1997 | 20,896 | #3 |
| 1998 | 19,874 | #5 |
| 1999 | 18,136 | #6 |
| 2000 | 18,000 | #4 |
| 2001 | 16,531 | #4 |
| 2002 | 15,344 | #6 |
| 2003 | 14,519 | #8 |
| 2004 | 14,377 | #8 |
| 2005 | 13,275 | #10 |
| 2006 | 12,353 | #12 |
| 2007 | 11,428 | #13 |
| 2008 | 9,408 | #18 |
| 2009 | 7,815 | #20 |
| 2010 | 6,317 | #29 |
| 2011 | 5,403 | #42 |
| 2012 | 4,700 | #50 |
| 2013 | 3,942 | #67 |
| 2014 | 3,559 | #87 |
| 2015 | 3,427 | #86 |
| 2016 | 3,044 | #101 |
| 2017 | 2,528 | #122 |
| 2018 | 2,280 | #129 |
| 2019 | 2,030 | #137 |
| 2020 | 1,807 | #153 |
| 2021 | 1,700 | #172 |
| 2022 | 1,863 | #154 |
| 2023 | 2,182 | #126 |
| 2024 | 2,231 | #124 |
