Tinsley
Feminine · Old English roots · “Tynni's mound or hill”
Tinsley is overwhelmingly a girls’ name — 4,659 girls against 88 boys since 1880.
Tinsley began as a place in South Yorkshire — a patch of ground on the edge of Sheffield, written down in the Domesday survey long before anyone thought of it as a first name. From there it became a family name, and from there, in America, a name given to daughters. Say it aloud and the middle turns to a z: TINZ-lee, two quick beats that land the way Ainsley and Kinsley do.
How old is the name Tinsley?
Tinsley first appears in US birth records in 1982 — 43 years ago. The typical Tinsley is a kid of about 8 — this name's wave is very recent. About 4,600 people named Tinsley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Tinsley most popular?
Tinsley peaked in 2020, reaching #718 nationally. Today it ranks #1109, 391 places below that high. See the whole 2020 chart.
Tinsley appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Tynni (Old English personal name) to Tinsley
The story of Tinsley
Tinsley is a district of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 in spellings like Tineslauue. Families who came from there took the place with them as a surname, in the ordinary English way, and carried it to America. There it sat as a last name for generations before American parents began moving surnames into the first slot — a habit that gave girls Kinsley, Ainsley, Presley and Paisley, and gave Tinsley its second life. Its use as a given name is a recent and largely American development, strongest in the South.
Meaning
Tynni's mound or hill
From the Old English personal name Tynni plus hlāw, 'mound, hill, burial mound' — the standard reading of the Yorkshire place name behind the surname. Tynni himself is a name and nothing more; no record of the man survives.
How the name formed
- TynniOld English personal name
- TineslauueDomesday spelling of the Yorkshire place
- TinsleyEnglish place name and surname
- TinsleyAmerican given name
Pronouncing Tinsley
TINZ-lee
Stress on the first syllable. The s is voiced, so it sounds like a z — TINZ, not TINSS.
Nicknames for Tinsley
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
- 1982
- Most girls named
- 2020388 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #718reached in 2020
- Change vs 2024
- +28.3%213 in 2025, from 166
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.
Tinsley in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, Georgia, Florida.
Tinsleys among us
people named Tinsley are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 7,546 born in 2025 was named Tinsley
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 Jacey test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Tinsley's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Jacey climbed just as high around 2000, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Jacey's path sketches the road Tinsley is walking now.
Tinsley 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 Tinsley is headed
Tinsley is easing off slowly — about 27% 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.
Tinsley beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Tinsley in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Spelled the way it sounds for most English speakers, and short enough to fit on any form.
- Sits inside a familiar sound family — Ainsley, Kinsley, Paisley — so people place it correctly on first hearing.
- A documented English place and surname going back to the eleventh century, which gives it a real line rather than a coined one.
- Rare enough in classrooms that a child is unlikely to share it, while still sounding entirely ordinary.
- It is one letter and one sound from tinsel, and someone will make that joke — most often around December. It tends to pass, but it is worth hearing out loud before you decide.
- Ainsley, Kinsley, Tinley and Tinsley are close enough that the name will be misheard and re-spelled fairly often. Expect to spell it on the phone.
- Its use as a first name belongs almost entirely to the last few decades, and nearly everyone carrying it is still a child. That means no adult namesakes to point to, and it will read as a name of this particular era.
- In Britain, Tinsley is heard as a surname and a Sheffield place name rather than a girl's name — worth knowing if your family has ties there.
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What they receive
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Tinsley
Feminine · Old English roots · #1109 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Tinsleys are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 4,600 people named Tinsley are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Tinsley in 2025?
- Tinsley ranks #1109 among US girl names in 2025, with 213 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Tinsley?
- About 1 in every 7,546 US girls born in 2025 was named Tinsley — 213 in all.
- Will my child share the name Tinsley with classmates?
- Tinsley will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Tinsley
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Ines#1109 · Erika#1109 · Icelynn#1109 · Kamora#1108 · Sia#1107 · Betty#1113 · Clarissa#1113 · Mollie#1113
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Tinsley? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Tinsley and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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