Arleigh
Feminine
Arleigh is given to both — 710 girls and 517 boys since 1880. See Arleigh as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Arleigh carries one of the best-known names in American naval history: Admiral Arleigh Burke, who served three terms as Chief of Naval Operations and lived to see a new class of destroyers named after him. The spelling is Arley with the -leigh ending English uses for old place names.
How old is the name Arleigh?
Arleigh first appears in US birth records in 1924 — 101 years ago. The typical Arleigh is a kid of about 11 — this name's wave is very recent. About 700 people named Arleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arleigh most popular?
Arleigh peaked in 2017, reaching #3552 nationally. Today it ranks #6116, 2,564 places below that high. See the whole 2017 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Arleigh
Arleigh starts in the English landscape, in a place name ending in a wood or a clearing, and ends up at sea. Arleigh Albert Burke, born in Colorado in 1901, earned the nickname '31-Knot Burke' driving his destroyer squadron hard in the Pacific in the Second World War, served three terms as Chief of Naval Operations, and in 1991 stood at the commissioning of USS Arleigh Burke, the first ship of a destroyer class that still bears his name. A name from an English field became the name of a warship.
Meaningnot established
Not established
Arleigh is Arley spelled with -leigh. Arley is an English place name and surname whose -ley is Old English leah, a wood or clearing; the first part differs from place to place and is not settled for the name. No record names who first spelled it Arleigh.
Pronouncing Arleigh
AR-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first; the -eigh says ee, as in Leigh.
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
- 1924
- Most girls named
- 201743 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3552reached in 2017
- Change vs 2024
- −29.6%19 in 2025, from 27
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.
Arleigh in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Arleighs among us
people named Arleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 84,593 born in 2025 was named Arleigh
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Jacquilyn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Arleigh's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jacquilyn climbed just as high around 1952, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jacquilyn's path sketches the road Arleigh is walking now.
Arleigh 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
Arleigh beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Arleigh in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Carries the name of a celebrated American admiral.
- Reads as AR-lee to most people at first sight.
- Rare, so it will seldom be shared.
- Arley, Arlie, Harley and Arleigh sound alike, so it will be misspelled and sometimes heard as Harley.
- Many people know it only from the destroyers, so it can read as military.
- It leans to girls without settling there, and its most famous bearer was a man; either child will sometimes be assumed to be the other.
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What they receive
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Arleigh
Feminine · #6116 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Arleighs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 700 people named Arleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Arleigh in 2025?
- Arleigh ranks #6116 among US girl names in 2025, with 19 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Arleigh?
- About 1 in every 84,593 US girls born in 2025 was named Arleigh — 19 in all.
- Will my child share the name Arleigh with classmates?
- Arleigh will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Arleigh
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Alvina#6116 · Mena#6116 · Harvey#6116 · Kellie#6116 · Alden#6116 · Jeanna#6116 · Sammi#6116 · Mamie#6116
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arleigh? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Arleigh and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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