Arleigh
Masculine
Arleigh is given to both — 517 boys and 710 girls since 1880. See Arleigh as a girl 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 1902 — 123 years ago. The typical Arleigh alive today was born around 1932, making them about 93 years old. About 100 people named Arleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Arleigh most popular?
Arleigh peaked in 1903, reaching #1130 nationally. See the whole 1903 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
- 1902
- Most boys named
- 192123 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1130reached in 1903
- Change vs 2022
- −25.0%6 in 2023, from 8
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.
Arleighs among us
people named Arleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
Questions parents actually ask
Fashion outlook
Arleigh sits outside the current charts, and that is its own kind of answer: naming cycles can only date the names they carried up. A name this rare has no decade stamped on it — it cannot go out of fashion, because it was never in.
Based on 146 years of naming cycles. How we read them
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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Arleigh
Masculine
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 100 people named Arleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Arleigh in 2025?
- Arleigh is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 boy names.
- Will my child share the name Arleigh with classmates?
- Arleigh will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anthony#46 · Andrew#73 · Alexander#30 · Aaron#80 · Adam#101 · Arthur#87 · Albert#614 · Austin#113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Arleigh? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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