Haleigh
Feminine · “hay clearing”
Haleigh is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 14,284 girls against 9 boys since 1880.
Haleigh is a respelling of Hayley, and the hay meadow behind it was a genuinely valuable thing — the field that fed livestock through winter.
How old is the name Haleigh?
Haleigh first appears in US birth records in 1978 — 47 years ago. The typical Haleigh alive today was born around 2002, making them about 23 years old. About 14,000 people named Haleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Haleigh most popular?
Haleigh peaked in 2000, reaching #372 nationally. Today it ranks #4352, 3,980 places below that high. See the whole 2000 chart.
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Haleigh
Ours, offered as ours. A hay meadow was the most carefully managed ground on a medieval farm: it had to be shut up in spring, guarded from grazing, cut at exactly the right week and dried before rain — and if it failed the livestock had to be slaughtered in autumn. The whole winter depended on it. So a place named for a hay meadow was named for the thing that mattered most, and Haleigh is nine letters and a thousand years from that.
Meaning
hay clearing
From Old English heg, hay, and leah, a clearing or meadow; the distinction between a meadow cut for hay and one grazed was legally and practically important, and the place names record it.
Pronouncing Haleigh
HAY-lee
Two syllables, first stressed. Every spelling of the name sounds the same.
Nicknames for Haleigh
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
- 1978
- Most girls named
- 2000789 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #372reached in 2000
- Change vs 2024
- −5.9%32 in 2025, from 34
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.
Haleigh in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Hayley in English — spelling variant
- Hailey in English — spelling variant
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, North Carolina.
Haleighs among us
people named Haleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 50,227 born in 2025 was named Haleigh
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 Michael test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Haleigh's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Michael climbed just as high around 1975, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Michael's path sketches the road Haleigh is walking now.
Haleigh 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 Haleigh is headed
Haleigh is easing off slowly — about 34% 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.
Haleigh beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Haleigh in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- A settled place-name meaning with a real and important piece of farming behind it.
- Leigh is a complete short form in its own right.
- Read correctly on sight by every English speaker.
- Hailey and Haley are both far more common and will be written for her.
- There are at least six live spellings of the sound and she will recite hers.
- The -leigh ending is six letters for one sound.
Nobody names a baby alone.
Put Haleigh to the vote.
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What they receive
Someone added a name to your list
Haleigh
Feminine · #4352 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Haleighs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 14,000 people named Haleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Haleigh in 2025?
- Haleigh ranks #4352 among US girl names in 2025, with 32 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Haleigh?
- About 1 in every 50,227 US girls born in 2025 was named Haleigh — 32 in all.
- Will my child share the name Haleigh with classmates?
- Haleigh will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Haleigh
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sigrid#4352 · Adel#4352 · Lovella#4352 · Kaysha#4352 · Arissa#4352 · Joseline#4352 · Yajaira#4352 · Elma#4352
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Haleigh? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Haleigh and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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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
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