Hadley
Masculine · “heather clearing”
Hadley is given to both — 2,096 boys and 46,595 girls since 1880. See Hadley as a girl nameSee other names given to both
A heath is uncultivated open ground, and the people who lived on it were the last to be converted; heathen is built from the same word, the country people out on the heath who had not come into the church. Hadley is the clearing in one.
How old is the name Hadley?
Hadley first appears in US birth records in 1906 — 119 years ago. The typical Hadley alive today was born around 1994, making them about 31 years old. About 1,500 people named Hadley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hadley most popular?
Hadley peaked in 1908, reaching #657 nationally. Today it ranks #6803, 6,146 places below that high. See the whole 1908 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From haeth leah to Hadley
The story of Hadley
The Old English leah names record what was in a clearing, and haeth is one of the standard first elements alongside ash, oak, broad and long. Hadley appears in Essex, Shropshire, Suffolk and Worcestershire. The surname followed, crossed to America and became a given name in the nineteenth century; its best year on the male side is 1908. It crossed to girls in the 2000s and is now far more common for them, helped by Hemingway's first wife, Hadley Richardson, and by the general fashion for -ley surnames on daughters.
Meaning
heather clearing, heath clearing
From Old English haeth, a heath or heather, and leah, a woodland clearing. The word haeth also lies behind heathen, which appears to have begun as a rendering of Latin paganus, itself meaning a country dweller; both languages named the unconverted after where they lived rather than what they believed.
How the name formed
- haeth leah
- Hadley
- Hadley
Related forms: Hadleigh · Headley
Pronouncing Hadley
HAD-lee
Two syllables with the stress on the first. The a is short, as in had; the Old English haeth had a longer vowel that English shortened.
Nicknames for Hadley
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
- 1906
- Most boys named
- 200452 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #657reached in 1908
- Change vs 2023
- −61.3%12 in 2025, from 31
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.
Hadley in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hadleigh in English — spelling variant
- Headley in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas.
Hadleys among us
people named Hadley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 boy in 142,340 born in 2025 was named Hadley
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
Fashion outlook
Hadley 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
Hadley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hadley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US boys given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled Old English meaning with an unusually good etymological connection.
- Leigh is available as a short form and is a genuine name of its own.
- Six letters and no pronunciation ambiguity.
- It is now far more common for girls than boys in the United States.
- Hadleigh and Headley both circulate.
- The -ley family is heavily used in current American naming.
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What they receive
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Hadley
Masculine · #6803 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hadleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 1,500 people named Hadley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Hadley in 2025?
- Hadley ranks #6803 among US boy names in 2025, with 12 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hadley?
- About 1 in every 142,340 US boys born in 2025 was named Hadley — 12 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hadley with classmates?
- Hadley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hadley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Zeb#6803 · Buster#6803 · Fabien#6803 · Eston#6803 · Tyjuan#6803 · Fuad#6803 · Aaiden#6803 · Sanford#6803
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hadley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hadley and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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