Tinley
Feminine · “assembly clearing”
Tinley is an English place-name and surname of the kind American parents have been mining for a generation, and it has a better story than most: the -ley is Old English leah, a clearing, and one candidate for the front half is the word for a public assembly. A clearing where people met to settle things.
How old is the name Tinley?
Tinley first appears in US birth records in 2002 — 23 years ago. The typical Tinley is a kid of about 9 — this name's wave is very recent. About 3,600 people named Tinley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tinley most popular?
Tinley peaked in 2016, reaching #794 nationally. Today it ranks #2719, 1,925 places below that high. See the whole 2016 chart.
Lists built from the same records:
Where it comes from
From leah to Tinley
The story of Tinley
English villages are full of -leys because settlement happened in clearings, and the families who came from them carried the names away. Tingley in the West Riding is one such place, and its first element is most often read as thing — the assembly, the meeting where free men settled disputes, the same word that gives Iceland its Althing. Whether Tinley descends from Tingley or from something more local, it belongs to that stock: an English place, then an English surname, then an American given name in the group that includes Finley, Kinsley and Hadley.
Meaningscholars disagree
assembly clearing — if the Tingley reading holds
The ending is certain: Old English leah, 'woodland clearing', the element closing Ashley, Bradley and several thousand English place-names. The first element is not. Tingley in West Yorkshire is generally read as thing leah, the clearing of the thing — the Norse and Old English word for a public assembly, still the parliament word in Iceland and Norway. Tinley may be a variant of that; it may also be an unrelated local surname. Tinley Park in Illinois, a separate matter, was named for a railroad agent.
How the name formed
- leah
- Tingley
- Tinley
Pronouncing Tinley
TIN-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first, no ambiguity anywhere in the sound. Only the spelling ever needs saying.
Nicknames for Tinley
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
- 2002
- Most girls named
- 2016358 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #794reached in 2016
- Change vs 2024
- −20.3%63 in 2025, from 79
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.
Tinley in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Illinois, Indiana.
Tinleys among us
people named Tinley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 25,512 born in 2025 was named Tinley
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 Ricki test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tinley's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Ricki climbed just as high around 1951, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Ricki's path sketches the road Tinley is walking now.
Tinley 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 Tinley is headed
Tinley is easing off slowly — about 40% 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.
Tinley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tinley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Simple to say and to spell once heard, with no silent letters.
- A genuine English place-name element behind the ending rather than an invented sound.
- Lee works as a short form and stands alone as a name.
- It is very close to Finley, Kinley and Hadley and will be misheard as all three.
- The first syllable is the metal, and someone will make the joke.
- The -ley surname-name group carries a strong sense of a particular American decade.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Tinley
Feminine · #2719 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tinleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 3,600 people named Tinley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tinley in 2025?
- Tinley ranks #2719 among US girl names in 2025, with 63 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tinley?
- About 1 in every 25,512 US girls born in 2025 was named Tinley — 63 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tinley with classmates?
- Tinley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tinley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ryver#2719 · Kaliana#2719 · Morrigan#2719 · Asher#2719 · Aditi#2719 · Carley#2719 · Betsy#2719 · Emy#2719
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tinley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tinley and another name?
See them side by side — full stats, history and a gentle verdict.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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