Shayleigh
Feminine · “a clearing in the woods”
Shayleigh is an Irish front and an English ending. Shay comes from an Irish family name, one of two ways English has spelled the same Gaelic original; -leigh is the Old English word for a woodland clearing, which sits at the end of a thousand English place names. Neither half has anything to do with the other, and together they make a name of the last few decades.
How old is the name Shayleigh?
Shayleigh first appears in US birth records in 1991 — 34 years ago. The typical Shayleigh alive today was born around 2008, making them about 17 years old. About 800 people named Shayleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Shayleigh most popular?
Shayleigh peaked in 2003, reaching #3412 nationally. Today it ranks #14942, 11,530 places below that high. See the whole 2003 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
The story of Shayleigh
Irish surnames reached English in whatever spelling the person writing them down could manage, and the same Gaelic name routinely came out several ways — Shea, Shay, O'Shea, Shee. Both Shea and Shay are now standing American given names, used for daughters and sons. The -leigh ending arrived from an entirely separate direction: an English place-name element that became a surname, then a given name, then a suffix available to attach to anything. Shayleigh is the collision of an Irish family name with an English landscape word, which is a fair description of a great deal of American naming.
Meaningscholars disagree
a clearing in the woods
The ending is clear: Old English leah, a meadow or clearing. The front is not. Shea and Shay are both anglicizations of the Irish surname O Seaghdha, whose root is usually read as stately or hawk-like and is not demonstrated. So the name inherits an undisputed ending and a contested front, which means the honest reading is the ending's. A compound owns both halves and neither.
Pronouncing Shayleigh
SHAY-lee
SHAY-lee, two syllables, stress at the front. The -leigh adds three letters and no sound; it does exactly what -ly would do. Shaylee, Shayleigh and Shailee are said identically and are distinguished only on paper.
Nicknames for Shayleigh
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
- 1991
- Most girls named
- 200945 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #3412reached in 2003
- Change vs 2024
- −28.6%5 in 2025, from 7
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.
Shayleigh in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Ó Séaghdha in Irish — related form
Shayleighs among us
people named Shayleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 321,453 born in 2025 was named Shayleigh
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 Andreia test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Shayleigh's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Andreia climbed just as high around 1980, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Andreia's path sketches the road Shayleigh is walking now.
Shayleigh 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
Shayleigh beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Shayleigh in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Both halves are complete names, so there are two ready alternatives at any point.
- The sound is entirely familiar, so it is never mispronounced.
- The Irish front and the English ending are both genuine elements rather than invented ones.
- Nine letters for two syllables means the name gets spelled out constantly and still comes back wrong.
- Shaylee, Shailey and Shaeleigh are all in use and none is standard.
- The -leigh ending dates the name to a recent and fairly narrow stretch of American naming.
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What they receive
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Shayleigh
Feminine · #14942 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Shayleighs are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 800 people named Shayleigh are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Shayleigh in 2025?
- Shayleigh ranks #14942 among US girl names in 2025, with 5 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Shayleigh?
- About 1 in every 321,453 US girls born in 2025 was named Shayleigh — 5 in all.
- Will my child share the name Shayleigh with classmates?
- Shayleigh will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Shayleigh
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Sophya#14942 · Lyllian#14942 · Sarrah#14942 · Mellanie#14942 · Kally#14942 · Dyanna#14942 · Morgann#14942 · Sabryna#14942
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Shayleigh? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Shayleigh and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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