Ashleigh
Feminine · “ash-tree clearing”
Ashleigh is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 31,861 girls against 83 boys since 1880.
Ashleigh is an ash-tree clearing with the most elaborate spelling English offers for the sound. The -leigh ending is a genuine variant in English place names, so the decoration has a real precedent.
How old is the name Ashleigh?
Ashleigh first appears in US birth records in 1966 — 59 years ago. The typical Ashleigh alive today was born around 1992, making them about 33 years old. About 31,500 people named Ashleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ashleigh most popular?
Ashleigh peaked in 1991, reaching #176 nationally. Today it ranks #6838, 6,662 places below that high. See the whole 1991 chart.
Where it comes from
From æsc + leah to Ashleigh
The story of Ashleigh
Ashley began as a place name in several English counties, became a surname, and crossed into given-name use for boys in the nineteenth century. The move to girls happened in America in the 1980s and was total. The respellings followed immediately, and Ashleigh took the -leigh variant — which, unlike most respellings of the period, matches a real historical spelling of the underlying word. It peaked in the early 1990s.
Meaning
ash-tree clearing
From the Old English æsc, 'ash tree', and leah, 'clearing' or 'woodland glade'. The leah element is the single commonest in English place names, and it is spelled -ley, -leigh, -lea and -ly in different counties, all from the same word.
How the name formed
- æsc + leah
- Ashley
- Ashleigh
Related forms: Ashley · Ashlee · Ashly
Pronouncing Ashleigh
ASH-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Every spelling of the name is said identically.
Nicknames for Ashleigh
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
- 1966
- Most girls named
- 19911,717 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #176reached in 1991
- Change vs 2024
- −42.9%16 in 2025, from 28
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.
Ashleigh in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ashley in English — spelling variant
- Ashlee in English — spelling variant
- Ashly in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, New York.
Ashleighs among us
people named Ashleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 100,454 born in 2025 was named Ashleigh
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 Dorothea test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ashleigh's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Dorothea climbed just as high around 1912, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Dorothea's path sketches the road Ashleigh is walking now.
Ashleigh 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
Ashleigh beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ashleigh in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The -leigh ending has genuine historical precedent in English place names.
- The meaning is concrete and easy to picture.
- Ash and Leigh are both usable short forms and both stand alone.
- It is the longest spelling of a sound with four common forms, so it will be misspelled routinely.
- The name is tightly dated to the late 1980s and 1990s.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Ashleigh to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Ashleigh? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Ashleigh
Feminine · #6838 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ashleighs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 31,500 people named Ashleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ashleigh in 2025?
- Ashleigh ranks #6838 among US girl names in 2025, with 16 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ashleigh?
- About 1 in every 100,454 US girls born in 2025 was named Ashleigh — 16 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ashleigh with classmates?
- Ashleigh will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ashleigh
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Malana#6838 · Jeannie#6838 · Maxie#6838 · Nicol#6838 · Chaney#6838 · Keana#6838 · Concetta#6838 · Pheobe#6838
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ashleigh? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ashleigh and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
Which one would you pick?
Your gut first, the numbers after — the split shows once you pick.
US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle