Hayleigh
Feminine · “hay clearing”
Hayley is a hay meadow: an English place name and then a surname, from the ordinary Old English words for cut grass and a clearing in a wood. Hayleigh is the same name with the ending written the way English actually spells clearings, since the -leigh in Ashleigh and Burleigh is the same word.
How old is the name Hayleigh?
Hayleigh first appears in US birth records in 1986 — 39 years ago. The typical Hayleigh alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 5,500 people named Hayleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hayleigh most popular?
Hayleigh peaked in 2010, reaching #832 nationally. Today it ranks #4758, 3,926 places below that high. See the whole 2010 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From heg-leah to Hayleigh
The story of Hayleigh
Hailey in Oxfordshire and several other places of the same name gave English families a surname, and the surname sat quietly for centuries. It became a first name in the twentieth century, moving quickly once it started, and by the nineteen-nineties it was everywhere in English-speaking countries. The respellings followed the popularity in the ordinary way: Hailey, Haley, Haylee, Hayleigh and Haleigh all write one sound. The -leigh ending in particular became a general decoration, attached to names that never had it.
Meaning
hay clearing; hay meadow
Old English heg, hay, joined to leah, a clearing in woodland or a meadow. The leah element is one of the commonest in English place names and appears as -ley, -leigh and -lee.
How the name formed
- heg-leah
- Hailey
- Hayley
- Hayleigh
Pronouncing Hayleigh
HAY-lee
Two syllables, stress in front. Every spelling of this name is said exactly the same way.
Nicknames for Hayleigh
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
- 1986
- Most girls named
- 2010323 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #832reached in 2010
- Change vs 2024
- −34.9%28 in 2025, from 43
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.
Hayleigh in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, New York, Florida.
Hayleighs among us
people named Hayleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 57,402 born in 2025 was named Hayleigh
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Hayleigh
- #4758
- Hayleigh on the 2025 chart
- #927
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Hayleigh went to 28 girls in 2025, but Haileigh is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 33, which makes it the 927th most-given girls’ name of the year — 3,831 places above the chart.
- Hayleigh28
- Haileigh5
About 1 girl in 48,705 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 57,402 for Hayleigh 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 Moira test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hayleigh's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Moira climbed just as high around 1965, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Moira's path sketches the road Hayleigh is walking now.
Hayleigh 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 Hayleigh is headed
Hayleigh is easing off slowly — about 21% 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.
Hayleigh beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hayleigh in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The meaning is a plain English landscape rather than a claim about a person.
- Leigh works as a short form and is a complete name elsewhere.
- The sound is universally familiar in English-speaking countries.
- At least five spellings of this sound are in common use, so the name will be written back wrongly for life.
- The -leigh ending marks the name firmly as of the last thirty years.
- Hailey is the commonest spelling and will be the default in any list.
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Hayleigh
Feminine · #4758 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hayleighs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,500 people named Hayleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Hayleigh?
- Hayleigh is the most-used spelling in US records — 28 of the 33 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Haileigh.
- How popular is the name Hayleigh in 2025?
- Hayleigh ranks #4758 among US girl names in 2025, with 28 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hayleigh?
- About 1 in every 57,402 US girls born in 2025 was named Hayleigh — 28 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hayleigh with classmates?
- Hayleigh will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hayleigh
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Marylou#4758 · Landon#4758 · Lexa#4758 · Alysia#4758 · Ixchel#4758 · Parisa#4758 · Jumana#4758 · Berenice#4758
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hayleigh? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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