Ashley
Masculine · “ash-tree clearing”
Ashley is given to girls far more often — 859,857 girls against 15,865 boys since 1880. See Ashley as a girl name
Ashley was a man's name in Britain for a century before it became a woman's name in America, and one novel is usually credited with the change — though it was a novel in which the Ashley is a man.
How old is the name Ashley?
Ashley was already in use when US birth records began in 1880 — it is at least 145 years old. The typical Ashley alive today was born around 1978, making them about 47 years old. About 13,000 people named Ashley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Ashley most popular?
Ashley peaked in 1980, reaching #281 nationally. Today it ranks #3949, 3,668 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From æsc + leah to Ashley
The story of Ashley
Ashley is a place name in several English counties and became a surname, then a given name for boys — carried notably by the Earls of Shaftesbury, whose family name it was. Gone with the Wind in 1936 gave it to a male character, and the film four years later put the sound in front of an enormous audience; within a generation American families were using it for daughters. Masculine Ashley peaked in the mid-1980s, just as the feminine use reached the top five.
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, which is why so many surname-names share the ending: Shirley, Beverley, Bradley, Hadley.
How the name formed
- æsc + leah
- Ashley
Related forms: Ashleigh · Ashlee
Pronouncing Ashley
ASH-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. Said identically for either sex and in every spelling.
Nicknames for Ashley
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
- 1880
- Most boys named
- 1981674 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #281reached in 1980
- Change vs 2022
- −6.9%27 in 2025, from 29
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.
Ashley in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ashleigh in English — spelling variant
- Ashlee in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Florida, New York.
Ashleys among us
people named Ashley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 63,262 born in 2025 was named Ashley
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 Rocco test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Ashley's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Rocco climbed just as high around 1922, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Rocco's path sketches the road Ashley is walking now.
Ashley 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
Where Ashley is headed
Ashley should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
Medium confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Ashley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Ashley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is concrete and easy to picture, which most surname-names cannot manage.
- Ash is a short, clean, thoroughly modern short form.
- It has a genuine and substantial masculine record in Britain.
- In America the name now reads as feminine to nearly everyone.
- Several spellings are in use and none of them settles the sex.
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What they receive
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Ashley
Masculine · #3949 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Ashleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 13,000 people named Ashley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Ashley in 2025?
- Ashley ranks #3949 among US boy names in 2025, with 27 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Ashley?
- About 1 in every 63,262 US boys born in 2025 was named Ashley — 27 in all.
- Will my child share the name Ashley with classmates?
- Ashley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Ashley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Stewart#3949 · Tillman#3949 · Alfonzo#3949 · Blane#3949 · Brayton#3949 · Omega#3949 · Graeme#3949 · Rufus#3949
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Ashley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Ashley and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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