Paisley
Feminine · “Most likely 'church”
Paisley is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 65,369 girls against 87 boys since 1880.
Paisley began as a town on the White Cart Water in Renfrewshire, Scotland, whose abbey has stood since the twelfth century. In the 1800s its weavers turned out shawls copying a curved teardrop motif from Kashmir and Persia so prolifically that English speakers gave the pattern the town's name. Said aloud it is two easy beats, PAYZ-lee, with the soft z in the middle doing most of the work.
How old is the name Paisley?
Paisley first appears in US birth records in 1966 — 59 years ago. The typical Paisley is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 65,000 people named Paisley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Paisley most popular?
Paisley peaked in 2015, reaching #45 nationally. Today it ranks #67, 22 places below that high. See the whole 2015 chart.
Where it comes from
From Passeleth to Paisley
The story of Paisley
The name is Scottish and geographical before it is anything else: a burgh west of Glasgow, home to a Cluniac priory founded in the 1160s that later became Paisley Abbey. From the place came a habitational surname, carried by families who left Scotland for North America and Ulster. From the town's nineteenth-century weaving industry came the English word for the boteh design — the curled teardrop that had traveled from Persia and Kashmir into Scottish looms. The given name is a much later development, an American surname-name that arrived in the twentieth century and grew quickly in the last two decades.
Meaningscholars disagree
Most likely 'church' — from a Brittonic word drawn from Latin basilica
The place appears in twelfth-century records as Passeleth. The leading reading traces it to a Brittonic *passeleg, borrowed from Latin basilica, 'major church' — fitting for a settlement that grew around an abbey. A competing proposal reads it as Old English elements meaning something like 'pasture clearing'. Neither has fully won out, and as a given name Paisley carries the town and the fabric far more than any etymology.
How the name formed
- Passeleth
- PaisleyRenfrewshire place name
- PaisleyScottish surname
- Paisleygiven name
Pronouncing Paisley
PAYZ-lee
Stress on the first syllable. The s is voiced, as in the fabric — PAYZ, not PAYSS — and this is settled in both American and Scottish usage.
Nicknames for Paisley
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
- 1966
- Most girls named
- 20155,091 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #45reached in 2015
- Change vs 2024
- −1.3%3,508 in 2025, from 3,554
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.
Paisley in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Ohio, California.
Paisleys among us
people named Paisley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 458 born in 2025 was named Paisley
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 Kathryn test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Paisley's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Kathryn climbed just as high around 1951, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Kathryn's path sketches the road Paisley is walking now.
Paisley is coming down from a big peak (#45 in 2015). This is the stretch of the cycle where a name starts to sound like the decade it ruled.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Paisley is headed
Paisley 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.
Paisley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Paisley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- The spelling is backed by a dictionary word and a real Scottish town, so most people can write it after hearing it once.
- Two syllables, first-syllable stress, no sounds that trouble English speakers of any age.
- A documented record stretching back to twelfth-century Scottish charters, unusually long for a name this new to American nurseries.
- Works as a given name and a surname, so it sits easily beside surname-style middle names.
- Familiar as a word without being crowded as a name — a Paisley is unlikely to share a classroom with another.
- The fabric association is immediate and permanent. Many people will picture a shawl or a necktie before they think of a person.
- Rival spellings — Paisleigh, Paislee, Paizley — are in circulation, so she may be asked which one she is even though hers is the standard form.
- The name's wave is very recent and still cresting downward, which means nearly every Paisley she meets will be roughly her own age.
- There is no long-established short form, so any nickname will be one your family makes up rather than one the name comes with.
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What they receive
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Paisley
Feminine · #67 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Paisleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 65,000 people named Paisley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Paisley in 2025?
- Paisley ranks #67 among US girl names in 2025, with 3,508 babies given the name.
- How common is the name Paisley?
- About 1 in every 458 US girls born in 2025 was named Paisley — 3,508 in all.
- Will my child share the name Paisley with classmates?
- Paisley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Paisley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Claire#68 · Genesis#66 · Alice#65 · Zoey#69 · Vivian#70 · Madelyn#70 · Ruby#64 · Eden#70
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Paisley? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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