Girl · Old English
Ashley
Say it: ASH-lee
Meaning
From an English surname taken from place names, Old English æsc 'ash tree' + lēah 'woodland clearing'.
Certainscholars agree on this meaning.
First a boys' name (Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind), it became one of the most popular US girls' names in the 1980s and 1990s.
Its wave through time
A fashion of the 1980s
In the United States
- 865,677 babies given this name since 1880
- At its height in 1987, about 1 in 32 girls
- 1,813 babies in 2020
Through the ages
Used by
The family of the name
Other spellings: Ashleigh, Ashlee, Ashlie
Famous bearers
- Ashley Judd, US actress
Names worth a look
Where this comes from
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
- Well-known works of literature
- United States Social Security birth records, 1880 to today source
Meanings and histories are compiled from the study of names and their languages and checked by a second review.
Meanings and histories are drawn from the study of names and their languages, each with a confidence rating; popularity figures come from official birth records. Name histories are a living field: if you know of a correction, we would be glad to hear it.