Hailee
Feminine · “hay clearing”
Hailee is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 16,484 girls against 6 boys since 1880.
Hailee is one spelling of a name that began as a patch of English ground — a hay meadow in Oxfordshire that gave its name to a family, and the family name that eventually became a first name for girls. It moves quickly in the mouth: two light syllables, the second one falling away, the same easy ending shared by Emily and Rosalie. The double-e spelling is the newest turn in a long line of them.
How old is the name Hailee?
Hailee first appears in US birth records in 1979 — 46 years ago. The typical Hailee alive today was born around 2005, making them about 20 years old. About 16,500 people named Hailee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hailee most popular?
Hailee peaked in 2003, reaching #360 nationally. Today it ranks #1352, 992 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From hēg-lēah (Old English: hay clearing) to Hailee
The story of Hailee
The root is a place in Oxfordshire, England — a clearing where hay was cut — whose name attached itself to the people who lived there and became the surname Hayley. Surnames of that kind drifted into use as given names over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and Hayley took hold as a girl's name in the English-speaking world in the 1960s, after a British actress made it familiar as a first name rather than a last. American parents then reshaped the spelling many times over: Haley, Hailey, Haleigh, Hayleigh, and Hailee among them. Hailee is the version that leans hardest on the -ee ending, and it arrived late in that sequence.
Meaning
hay clearing, hay meadow
From Old English hēg (hay) and lēah (woodland clearing or meadow), by way of the place name and surname Hayley. The Hailee spelling is a modern American respelling of that same name, not a separate word.
How the name formed
- hēg-lēahOld English: hay clearing
- Hailey / HayleyOxfordshire place name
- HayleyEnglish surname
- Hayleygiven name for girls
- Hailee
Related forms: Hayley · Hailey · Haley · Haleigh · Hayleigh
Pronouncing Hailee
HAY-lee
Stress on the first syllable. Every common spelling of this name — Hailee, Hailey, Haley, Hayley — is said exactly the same way in American English.
Nicknames for Hailee
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
- 1979
- Most girls named
- 2003850 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #360reached in 2003
- Change vs 2024
- −9.4%163 in 2025, from 180
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.
Hailee in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hayley in English — spelling variant
- Hailey in English — spelling variant
- Haley in English — spelling variant
- Haleigh in English — spelling variant
- Hayleigh in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, Texas, New York.
Hailees among us
people named Hailee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 9,861 born in 2025 was named Hailee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Hailee
- #1352
- Hailee on the 2025 chart
- #659
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Hailee went to 163 girls in 2025, but Haylee is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 316, which makes it the 659th most-given girls’ name of the year — 693 places above the chart.
- Hailee163
- Haylee153
About 1 girl in 5,086 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 9,861 for Hailee 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 Leann test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hailee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Leann climbed just as high around 1968, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Leann's path sketches the road Hailee is walking now.
Hailee 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 Hailee is headed
Hailee 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.
Hailee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hailee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads correctly at first sight for English speakers: no one hesitates over how to say it, whatever the spelling.
- Two short syllables that sit easily against both one-syllable and longer surnames.
- The underlying name has an unbroken documented line from an Old English place name through a surname to a girl's given name.
- Familiar in sound without being duplicated — the name is widely recognized while the spelling itself is seldom repeated in one room.
- The spelling is the real cost. Hailey, Haley, Hayley and Haleigh all sound identical, and Hailee is not the default guess, so she will be correcting forms, teachers and coffee cups for life.
- The sound belongs distinctly to the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Most people carrying it are young adults now, which makes it read contemporary rather than classic — and it is stepping back from where it once stood.
- Short forms are thin: Hails and Hail are about it, and neither travels far into adulthood. This is a name mostly used whole.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Hailee to the vote.
Add it to a family vote or a couple’s swipe deck — the other person gets one card, a simple answer and room to say why. No app, no account for them.
Only the people you invite can see your list.
Already decided on Hailee? Hide it among decoys and let them guess.
What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Hailee
Feminine · #1352 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hailees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 16,500 people named Hailee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Hailee?
- Hailee is the most-used spelling in US records — 163 of the 316 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Haylee.
- How popular is the name Hailee in 2025?
- Hailee ranks #1352 among US girl names in 2025, with 163 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hailee?
- About 1 in every 9,861 US girls born in 2025 was named Hailee — 163 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hailee with classmates?
- Hailee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hailee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Aubrie#1352 · Lillianna#1352 · Devorah#1352 · Annabella#1352 · Lexie#1352 · Leora#1352 · Gianni#1348 · Farah#1348
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hailee? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hailee and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
Compare side by sideIn a hurry? Just pick a winner — one tap, no sign-up, and you see how everyone else voted.
Weighing a whole shortlist? Add the rest in the builder, or settle it with a bracket.
Cast your vote
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
No advertising trackers and no data sellinghow we handle your dataindependent and founder-run, about Name Battle