Bailee
Feminine · “bailiff”
Bailee is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 16,240 girls against 243 boys since 1880.
Bailee belongs to the family of English surnames that became first names — behind it stands Bailey, from the Middle English word for a bailiff or steward, a man who kept accounts and kept order. The double-e ending is the newer part of the story, a spelling choice that arrived with a whole wave of American names ending the same way. Said aloud it is two open syllables that carry easily across a playground.
How old is the name Bailee?
Bailee first appears in US birth records in 1982 — 43 years ago. The typical Bailee alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 16,000 people named Bailee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bailee most popular?
Bailee peaked in 1997, reaching #407 nationally. Today it ranks #1069, 662 places below that high. See the whole 1997 chart.
Where it comes from
From baili (Middle English: bailiff, steward) to Bailee
The story of Bailee
The name begins as an English occupational surname for a bailiff — the steward or officer who managed an estate or a court — and it also attached to families living near a castle bailey. Like Riley, Kelsey and Presley, it crossed from surname to first name in the United States, and in doing so it moved steadily toward girls. Bailee is the respelled version of that first name, part of the broader American taste for -ee and -eigh endings that reshaped Hailey, Kaylee and Baylee in the same decades. It arrived on the US charts in the early 1980s, rose through the 1990s, and has been easing back since — a full arc within living memory.
Meaningscholars disagree
bailiff, steward — one who administers
Two serious readings compete behind the surname Bailey. The main one traces it to Middle English 'baili' (bailiff, steward), ultimately from Latin. The other takes it from 'bailey', the outer wall or courtyard of a castle, which also produced English place names. Both are genuine; the occupational reading is the more widely given.
How the name formed
- bailiMiddle English: bailiff, steward
- BaileyEnglish surname
- Baileygiven name
- Bailee
Related forms: Bailey · Baylee · Bailie · Baileigh
Pronouncing Bailee
BAY-lee
Stress on the first syllable. The pronunciation is identical to Bailey, Baylee and Baileigh — only the spelling separates them.
Nicknames for Bailee
High
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
- 1982
- Most girls named
- 2000658 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #407reached in 1997
- Change vs 2024
- −13.0%227 in 2025, from 261
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.
Bailee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Bailey in English — spelling variant
- Baylee in English — spelling variant
- Bailie in English — spelling variant
- Baileigh in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, Louisiana.
Bailees among us
people named Bailee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,080 born in 2025 was named Bailee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Bailee
- #1069
- Bailee on the 2025 chart
- #533
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Bailee went to 227 girls in 2025, but Baylee is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 475, which makes it the 533rd most-given girls’ name of the year — 536 places above the chart.
- Baylee248
- Bailee227
About 1 girl in 3,384 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 7,080 for Bailee 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 Tonja test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bailee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Tonja climbed just as high around 1967, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Tonja's path sketches the road Bailee is walking now.
Bailee 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 Bailee is headed
Bailee is easing off slowly — about 16% fewer babies a year by 2030 if the trend continues.
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.
Bailee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bailee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Pronunciation is never in question: any English speaker reads it correctly on sight, because the sound is already familiar from Bailey.
- Rooted in a real English surname with a documented medieval word behind it, rather than a coinage without history.
- Short forms are ready-made — Bay, Bails, Bee — and Bay works as a full name on its own.
- Two syllables with an open ending, which pairs easily with both short and long surnames.
- Bailey is the default spelling, so expect a lifetime of gentle correcting — on forms, in email, at the coffee counter. Most people with an -ee or -eigh spelling learn a quick spoken formula for it early.
- The -ee ending places the name in a specific window of American spelling fashion, alongside Hailee, Kaylee and Baylee. That can read as of-its-moment rather than open-ended.
- As a surname-name, it has no long record as a given name anywhere — its whole life as a first name fits inside the last few decades, which means fewer namesakes and traditions to draw on.
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What they receive
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Bailee
Feminine · #1069 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Bailees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 16,000 people named Bailee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Bailee?
- Bailee is one of 2 recorded spellings. Baylee is the more common one — 248 births in 2025 against 227 for Bailee.
- How popular is the name Bailee in 2025?
- Bailee ranks #1069 among US girl names in 2025, with 227 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bailee?
- About 1 in every 7,080 US girls born in 2025 was named Bailee — 227 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bailee with classmates?
- Bailee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bailee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Lailani#1069 · Harriet#1071 · Annelise#1071 · Joyce#1071 · Aniya#1071 · Kara#1071 · Chiara#1065 · Casey#1065
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bailee? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bailee and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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