Hayley
Feminine · Old English roots · “hay clearing”
Hayley is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 51,403 girls against 46 boys since 1880.
Hayley began as a patch of English countryside — a hay meadow named in Old English, which became the Oxfordshire village of Hailey, which became a family surname. It reached girls through the British actress Hayley Mills, who carried her mother's maiden name into films, and English-speaking parents heard it and adopted it. It has stayed easy to say ever since: two clear beats, a soft landing.
How old is the name Hayley?
Hayley first appears in US birth records in 1960 — 65 years ago. The typical Hayley alive today was born around 1997, making them about 28 years old. About 50,500 people named Hayley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Hayley most popular?
Hayley peaked in 1996, reaching #120 nationally. Today it ranks #1250, 1,130 places below that high. See the whole 1996 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From hēg + lēah (Old English) to Hayley
The story of Hayley
The Old English words hēg and lēah — hay and clearing — combined into place names across England, among them Hailey in Oxfordshire. People who came from such places were known by them, and the name passed into use as a surname. It moved to first-name use through the actress Hayley Mills, whose given name was her mother's maiden surname; her fame as a child star put the sound in front of a very large audience, and parents in Britain, Australia and the United States began giving it to daughters. The -ley spelling stayed closest to the surname, while Haley, Hailey and Haylee grew up alongside it.
Meaning
hay clearing, hay meadow
From Old English hēg (hay) and lēah (woodland clearing or meadow), the elements behind the Oxfordshire place name Hailey.
How the name formed
- hēg + lēahOld English
- HaileyEnglish place name
- HayleyEnglish surname
- Hayleygiven name
Pronouncing Hayley
HAY-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first. The spelling gives the sound away, so mispronunciation is rare in English.
Nicknames for Hayley
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
- 1960
- Most girls named
- 19932,618 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #120reached in 1996
- Change vs 2024
- −22.8%179 in 2025, from 232
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.
Hayley in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: California, New York, Texas.
Hayleys among us
people named Hayley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 8,979 born in 2025 was named Hayley
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Hayley
- #1250
- Hayley on the 2025 chart
- #108
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Hayley went to 179 girls in 2025, but Hailey is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 2,735, which makes it the 108th most-given girls’ name of the year — 1,142 places above the chart.
- Hailey2,556
- Hayley179
About 1 girl in 588 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 8,979 for Hayley 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 Summer test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Hayley's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Summer climbed just as high around 1977, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Summer's path sketches the road Hayley is walking now.
Hayley 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 Hayley is headed
Hayley is easing off slowly — about 23% 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.
Hayley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Hayley 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 for English speakers: almost no one hears Hayley and pronounces it wrong.
- Familiar across the English-speaking world — Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States all know it.
- A traceable line from Old English words to place name to surname to given name, with no gaps to explain.
- Short forms already in real use, and the second syllable doubles as the standalone name Lee.
- The spelling competes with Hailey, Haley, Haylee and Hailee, all in genuine use. Expect to spell it out often, and expect the occasional form to come back wrong.
- It arrived and spread within living memory, so most people carrying it now are adults rather than children. A girl named Hayley today is likelier to meet grown Hayleys than classmates.
- Its short forms are affectionate clippings rather than distinct names — there is no formal alternative tucked inside it if she ever wants one.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Hayley
Feminine · Old English roots · #1250 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Hayleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 50,500 people named Hayley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Hayley?
- Hayley is one of 2 recorded spellings. Hailey is the more common one — 2,556 births in 2025 against 179 for Hayley.
- How popular is the name Hayley in 2025?
- Hayley ranks #1250 among US girl names in 2025, with 179 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Hayley?
- About 1 in every 8,979 US girls born in 2025 was named Hayley — 179 in all.
- Will my child share the name Hayley with classmates?
- Hayley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Hayley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Adina#1250 · Juno#1250 · Sharon#1250 · Kenia#1250 · Solene#1250 · Navi#1250 · Laylah#1250 · Guadalupe#1248
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Hayley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Hayley and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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