Bailey
Feminine · Old French roots · “bailiff”
Bailey is given to both — 110,806 girls and 21,738 boys since 1880. See Bailey as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Bailey began as an English surname carried by court officials and by families living beside the walled yard of a castle — the bailey itself, that stretch of ground inside the outer wall. London's Old Bailey, the criminal court, takes its name from exactly that feature of the old city wall. Said aloud it falls in two easy beats, the same open ending that Riley and Finley share.
How old is the name Bailey?
Bailey first appears in US birth records in 1916 — 109 years ago. The typical Bailey alive today was born around 2004, making them about 21 years old. About 110,000 people named Bailey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Bailey most popular?
Bailey peaked in 1998, reaching #60 nationally. Today it ranks #208, 148 places below that high. See the whole 1998 chart.
Bailey appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From baille / bailli (Old French) to Bailey
The story of Bailey
The word came into English from Norman French after the Conquest, in both its senses — the official and the walled enclosure — and by the later Middle Ages it had settled into English family names. As a surname it spread widely through England and Ireland, and from there across the Atlantic, where American parents did what they have long done with British surnames: moved it to the front of the name. It appeared on US birth records early in the twentieth century and grew slowly for decades before its real rise, arriving on girls and boys alike. The surname route is the only route: there is no separate men's Bailey and women's Bailey, just one name that travels both ways, with the great majority of American children given it being girls.
Meaningscholars disagree
'bailiff, steward' or 'outer castle wall, enclosure'
Two solid readings sit behind the surname. One is occupational: Middle English baili, from Old French bailli, a bailiff or steward — a man who managed an estate or represented a lord. The other is topographic: the bailey, the enclosed courtyard between a castle's keep and its outer wall, from Old French baille. A third, narrower source is English place names such as Bailey in Lancashire. Any given family line could descend from any of them.
How the name formed
- baille / bailliOld French
- bailiMiddle English
- BaileyEnglish surname
- Baileygiven name
Related forms: Baillie · Bailly · Bailee · Baylee
Pronouncing Bailey
BAY-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. The main spelling gives the sound away, so strangers rarely mispronounce it — even if they hesitate over how it is spelled.
Nicknames for Bailey
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
- 1916
- Most girls named
- 19985,198 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #60reached in 1998
- Change vs 2024
- −12.5%1,446 in 2025, from 1,652
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.
Bailey in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Baillie in Scots English — spelling variant
- Bailly in French — related form
- Bailee in English — spelling variant
- Baylee in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Baileys among us
people named Bailey are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 1,112 born in 2025 was named Bailey
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 Valerie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Bailey's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Valerie climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Valerie's path sketches the road Bailey is walking now.
Bailey is coming down from a big peak (#60 in 1998). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Bailey is headed
Bailey should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High 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.
Bailey beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Bailey in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled as it sounds: almost no one reads BAY-lee wrong on first sight.
- Over a century on American birth records, with bearers now spanning several generations — recognizable to anyone, at any age.
- Works for a girl or a boy from the same surname root, with no separate history to explain.
- Familiar without being crowded — a child is unlikely to share it with anyone in their year.
- Short forms already in real use, so there is a nickname without inventing one.
- Bailee, Baylee, Bayleigh and Baileigh all exist, so the question 'how do you spell that?' will follow the name through school, work and paperwork.
- Baileys Irish Cream is a household brand, and Bailey is a very popular dog name in the US. Neither is a serious problem, but expect the occasional joke.
- In American records the spelling reads overwhelmingly female. A boy named Bailey may be assumed a girl on forms and rosters until he is met in person.
- It has stepped back from its high point, which means most people who share the name are now adults rather than children — a name a child will hear about themselves more than around themselves.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Bailey
Feminine · Old French roots · #208 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Baileys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 110,000 people named Bailey are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Bailey in 2025?
- Bailey ranks #208 among US girl names in 2025, with 1,446 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Bailey?
- About 1 in every 1,112 US girls born in 2025 was named Bailey — 1,446 in all.
- Will my child share the name Bailey with classmates?
- Bailey will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Bailey
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Adaline#208 · Celine#207 · Jasmine#206 · Myla#210 · Vera#205 · Aitana#211 · Zara#212 · Kylie#204
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Bailey? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Bailey and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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