Aylee
Feminine · “Moon”
Aylee is a light, open American name of the 2020s, and it may be more than that: ay is the Turkish word for moon, and it opens a large family of real Turkish names — Aylin, Aynur, Ayşe, Aysel. Whether any American Aylee descends from that, the record does not say.
How old is the name Aylee?
Aylee first appears in US birth records in 2000 — 25 years ago. The typical Aylee is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 500 people named Aylee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Aylee most popular?
Aylee peaked in 2021, reaching #3112 nationally. Today it ranks #5238, 2,126 places below that high. See the whole 2021 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Aylee
The -lee ending arrived in American girls' naming through Kaylee in the 1990s and then spread the way an infectious sound does: Bailey, Haylee, Rylee, Kylee, Marlee, Emalee, Aylee. What separates it from the older -ly and -leigh spellings is that it looks like two syllables and reads as a full name rather than as a diminutive. Attach it to almost any opening vowel and the result scans. Aylee's opening happens to coincide with a real and lovely Turkish word, and Turkish and Turkic-American families are a genuine part of the American record — but so is a much larger group of families who simply liked the sound. Its peak in 2021 is very recent, and the name is still rising in the data rather than settled.
Meaningscholars disagree
Moon, if the opening is Turkish
Turkish ay, moon, is a genuine and productive name element giving Aylin, moon halo, and Aysel, moonlike. That reading is settled for those names. Aylee itself is not a Turkish name; the -lee ending is English. The alternative reading treats the whole thing as an American formation on the model of Kaylee, Baylee and Haylee, in which case there is no meaning at all. Both are live and the spelling does not choose.
Pronouncing Aylee
AY-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first, rhyming with Haley. Turkish ay is closer to the English word eye, which is a different opening entirely.
Nicknames for Aylee
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
- 2000
- Most girls named
- 202152 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3112reached in 2021
- Change vs 2024
- +14.3%24 in 2025, from 21
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.
Aylee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Aylin in Turkish — related form
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California.
Aylees among us
people named Aylee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 66,969 born in 2025 was named Aylee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Aylee
- #5238
- Aylee on the 2025 chart
- #909
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Aylee went to 24 girls in 2025, but Ailee is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 51, which makes it the 909th most-given girls’ name of the year — 4,329 places above the chart.
- Ailee27
- Aylee24
About 1 girl in 31,515 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 66,969 for Aylee itself.
Spellings are grouped by a fixed rule that folds interchangeable English spellings of one sound (ck/k, ph/f, x/ks, a non-initial y for i) and keeps vowels apart, so Sean and Shawn stay separate names. It errs towards splitting: a family here is never larger than the truth. SSA national data, 2025. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Deni test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Aylee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Deni climbed just as high around 1974, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Deni's path sketches the road Aylee is walking now.
Aylee 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
Aylee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Aylee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Five letters and two open syllables make it easy everywhere.
- It sounds like several currently popular names without being one of them.
- Ay and Lee both work as short forms.
- Ailee, Aylee, Aleigh and Aylie are all in use.
- The Turkish connection is available but not established for this spelling.
- It will be heard as a variant of Hailey or Bailey rather than as its own name.
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Aylee
Feminine · #5238 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Aylees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 500 people named Aylee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Aylee?
- Aylee is one of 2 recorded spellings. Ailee is the more common one — 27 births in 2025 against 24 for Aylee.
- How popular is the name Aylee in 2025?
- Aylee ranks #5238 among US girl names in 2025, with 24 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Aylee?
- About 1 in every 66,969 US girls born in 2025 was named Aylee — 24 in all.
- Will my child share the name Aylee with classmates?
- Aylee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Aylee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Irena#5238 · Esma#5238 · Dagny#5238 · Venice#5238 · Lisbeth#5238 · Loralie#5238 · Alania#5238 · Erma#5238
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Aylee? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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