Zaylee
Feminine
Zaylee's whole record is a recent American one — it arrived on the charts in this century and rose quickly, and it is now easing back from its high point. It sits in the large English family of names that end in -lee, next to Kaylee, Hailey and Bailey, but the opening Z is rare enough in English given names that the two syllables land with a little snap.
How old is the name Zaylee?
Zaylee first appears in US birth records in 2000 — 25 years ago. The typical Zaylee is a kid of about 7 — this name's wave is very recent. About 5,400 people named Zaylee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Zaylee most popular?
Zaylee peaked in 2018, reaching #596 nationally. Today it ranks #918, 322 places below that high. See the whole 2018 chart.
Zaylee appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
Origin, sound and short forms
Our story of Zaylee
Picture the -lee names as a long street: Kaylee, Hailey, Bailey, Riley, all built from the same soft English ending that once meant a clearing in the woods. Zaylee moved onto that street late, and brought a letter almost none of the neighbors had. That is really the story — a familiar rhythm given a sound English given names had barely used, appearing in American records within living memory and spreading fast enough that most of the people carrying it are still children. Names like this are made rather than inherited, and the making is close enough to see.
Meaningnot established
Not established
No established meaning: Zaylee is a modern coinage with no traceable source word. What is documented are its parts. The -lee ending comes into given names through the English surnames Lee and Leigh, which trace to Old English lēah, 'woodland clearing' or 'meadow'. The Zay- opening is shared with Zane and Zayden, names that were themselves rising in the same decades. Neither fact gives the whole name a meaning, and anyone who tells you it has one is filling in a blank.
Pronouncing Zaylee
ZAY-lee
Two syllables, stress on the first, rhyming with Kaylee and Bailey. English speakers read it correctly on sight; the risk is being misheard as Kaylee or Zoey over the phone rather than mispronounced.
Nicknames for Zaylee
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
- 2000
- Most girls named
- 2018511 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #596reached in 2018
- Change vs 2024
- −19.2%286 in 2025, from 354
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.
Zaylee in other languages
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Florida.
Zaylees among us
people named Zaylee are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 5,620 born in 2025 was named Zaylee
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Spellings of Zaylee
- #918
- Zaylee on the 2025 chart
- #649
- counting every spelling
The SSA counts spellings, not names. Zaylee went to 286 girls in 2025, but Zailee is the same name said out loud. Together the 2 spellings went to 327, which makes it the 649th most-given girls’ name of the year — 269 places above the chart.
- Zaylee286
- Zailee41
About 1 girl in 4,915 born in 2025 was given one of these spellings — against 1 in 5,620 for Zaylee 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 Karlie test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Zaylee's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Karlie climbed just as high around 1994, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Karlie's path sketches the road Zaylee is walking now.
Zaylee 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 Zaylee is headed
Zaylee should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
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.
Zaylee beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Zaylee in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- Reads correctly at first glance for English speakers, because the -lee ending is already familiar from Kaylee, Hailey and Bailey.
- Two short syllables with a clear stress — easy for a small child to say and easy to call across a playground.
- Zay works as a ready-made short form, and doubles as a name in its own right.
- A child named Zaylee will very likely be the only one in her school, while the name itself is far from unheard of.
- The spelling competes with Zailee, Zaylie, Zayleigh and Zaeleigh, none of which is dominant. Expect to spell it out often, and to correct forms and name tags for life.
- There is no established meaning, and no honest way to supply one. If a documented meaning matters to your family, this name will not give you one.
- Its rise and its step back both happened within a short span, so it reads as a name of a particular recent moment rather than a name of no fixed era. That is a fact about the record, not a verdict on the name.
- In a room of Kaylees and Rileys it can be misheard on first introduction — usually solved by one repetition.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Zaylee
Feminine · #918 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Zaylees are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 5,400 people named Zaylee are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How do you spell Zaylee?
- Zaylee is the most-used spelling in US records — 286 of the 327 babies given the name in 2025. The others recorded are Zailee.
- How popular is the name Zaylee in 2025?
- Zaylee ranks #918 among US girl names in 2025, with 286 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Zaylee?
- About 1 in every 5,620 US girls born in 2025 was named Zaylee — 286 in all.
- Will my child share the name Zaylee with classmates?
- Zaylee will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Zaylee
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Elyse#918 · Giana#920 · Cheyenne#920 · Emmeline#922 · Giuliana#914 · Sarahi#914 · Winifred#922 · Raina#914
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Zaylee? See the current top 100.
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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