Annslee
Feminine · “Ansley's or the hermit's clearing”
Annslee is Ainsley taken apart and rebuilt from English pieces: Ann, which is a name, and Lee, which is a name. Ainsley itself is neither — it is an English place name, and the s in the middle is a possessive, not a word.
How old is the name Annslee?
Annslee first appears in US birth records in 1998 — 27 years ago. The typical Annslee is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Annslee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Annslee most popular?
Annslee peaked in 2014, reaching #4269 nationally. Today it ranks #5554, 1,285 places below that high. See the whole 2014 chart.
Where it comes from
From Ainsley to Annslee
Our story of Annslee
This is folk etymology working on a place name, and it is worth watching because it happens so cleanly. Ainsley rose as an American girls' name from the 1990s. To an English-speaking eye the word looks like it might contain Ann and Lee, and both are established names, so families began writing it that way: Annslee, Annsley, Annaleigh, Ansleigh. The respelling encodes an analysis of the name that is historically wrong and perfectly sensible given the letters. The same thing produced Brookelynn from Brooklyn and Marylee from Marley. What is being reconstructed in each case is not the name's history but its shape, and the reconstruction becomes real as soon as enough people write it. Annslee's peak in 2014 sits inside the parent name's American run.
Meaningscholars disagree
Ansley's or the hermit's clearing
Ainsley and Annesley come from English place names in Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire, generally read as a clearing belonging to a man named Anne or Ann, or from Old English ānsetl, a hermitage, with lēah, a clearing. Neither is settled. The Annslee respelling analyzes the name as Ann plus Lee, which is not its history, though it is a reasonable reading of the letters.
How the name formed
- Ainsley
- Annslee
Related forms: Ainsley
Pronouncing Annslee
ANZ-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first, identical to Ainsley. The respelling changes nothing in speech.
Nicknames for Annslee
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1998
- Most girls named
- 201434 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #4269reached in 2014
- Change vs 2024
- +22.2%22 in 2025, from 18
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Annslee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ainsley in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Tennessee, Mississippi.
Annslees among us
people named Annslee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 73,058 born in 2025 was named Annslee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Annslee
- #5554
- Annslee on the 2025 chart
- #900
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Annslee went to 22 girls in 2025, but Anslee is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 60, which makes it the 900th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,654 places above the chart.
- Anslee38
- Annslee22
About 1 girl in 26,788 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 73,058 for Annslee itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Griselle test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Annslee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Griselle climbed just as high around 1963, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Griselle's path sketches the road Annslee is walking now.
Annslee sits in the calm middle of the cycle — neither chasing a wave nor sliding off one. Middle-of-the-cycle names age slowly and predictably.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Annslee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Annslee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Ann and Lee are both complete, established names usable alone.
- Everyone can say it after one hearing.
- It sounds familiar because both halves are.
- Ainsley is the standard spelling and will be written for it.
- The two-word reading is historically wrong, which a curious child will find.
- Ainsley, Ansley, Annslee and Annsley are four spellings of one sound.
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Annslee
Feminine · #5554 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Annslees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Annslee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Annslee?
- Annslee is one of 2 recorded spellings. Anslee is the more common one — 38 births in 2025 against 22 for Annslee.
- How popular is the name Annslee in 2025?
- Annslee ranks #5554 among US girl names in 2025, with 22 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Annslee?
- About 1 in every 73,058 US girls born in 2025 was named Annslee — 22 in all.
- Will my child share the name Annslee with classmates?
- Annslee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Annslee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Eda#5554 · Phebe#5554 · Felicia#5554 · Audie#5554 · Maryellen#5554 · Warren#5554 · Ruthann#5554 · Nettie#5554
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Annslee? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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