Ashlei
Feminine · “the clearing among the ash trees”
The ei on the end of this name is borrowed from German, where it says something entirely different. In German that pair of letters is the vowel of eye — which is why Einstein and Heidi sound as they do — so a German reader meeting this spelling would produce ASH-lie without hesitating.
How old is the name Ashlei?
Ashlei first appears in US birth records in 1971 — 54 years ago. The typical Ashlei alive today was born around 1991, making them about 34 years old. About 2,000 people named Ashlei are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ashlei most popular?
Ashlei peaked in 1987, reaching #1132 nationally. See the whole 1987 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From Ashley to Ashlei
The story of Ashlei
The tree at the front of the name held a considerable position in Norse belief. The world tree, the ash that held the nine worlds together with its roots in three different places and a great many animals living in and around it, was the axis everything else was arranged around — and the first man was made from an ash log washed up on a shore. English place names naming ash trees are not making a mythological claim; ash was simply an extremely common tree and a useful one, straight-grained and springy, which is why tool handles and spear shafts were made of it for thousands of years.
Meaning
the clearing among the ash trees
An English place name used as a surname and then as a given name. Both elements are Old English and the identification is not disputed; the respelling touches only the last two letters.
How the name formed
- Ashley
- Ashlee
- Ashlei
Pronouncing Ashlei
ASH-lee
Two syllables with the stress at the front. In English the ei is said as a long e, which is not what those letters do in the language they were borrowed from.
Nicknames for Ashlei
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
- 1971
- Most girls named
- 1987131 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #1132reached in 1987
- Change vs 2013
- −60.0%6 in 2014, from 15
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.
Ashleis among us
people named Ashlei 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
Ashlei 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
- Ash sits inside it as a short form that is entirely current.
- The sound is completely settled and never needs a second attempt.
- It is far rarer than the standard spelling while sounding identical.
- Ashley and Ashlee are both commoner and this spelling gets corrected.
- The borrowed ending says something different in the language it came from.
- It is closely tied to the decades of its rise.
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Ashlei
Feminine
Frequently asked
- How many Ashleis are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 2,000 people named Ashlei are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ashlei in 2025?
- Ashlei is rarely given in the US today — it does not rank in the top 2000 girl names.
- Will my child share the name Ashlei with classmates?
- Ashlei will almost certainly be the only one in school.
More A names
The most-given names starting with A, all years combined.
Anna#107 · Ashley#164 · Amanda#493 · Amy#257 · Angela#408 · Alice#65 · Ann#1076 · Andrea#235
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ashlei? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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