girl's name
Ashleigh
ASH-lee
- Origin English
- Gender Girl
- Letters 8
- Popularity Rare
- Births on record 44,745
Northern Ireland
#557
2016 births
Ashleigh peaked far higher in England than in America — 1,133 births in England and Wales in 1996 against a US high of 1,717, in a country with roughly a fifth of the population.
- Ashleigh is a name of English origin.
- Peaked in 1991, when 1,717 babies were given the name.
- It has been falling over the past decade.
- Today about 1 in 207,211 babies in the United States is given this name.
- First appears in US birth records in 1966.
Ashleigh over time
Births per decade in the United States, 1960s to 2020s. The striped bar is the 2020s, still in progress — it covers 2020 to 2025, not a full ten years.
Show the numbers
| Decade | Births |
|---|---|
| 1960s | 53 |
| 1970s | 846 |
| 1980s | 9,945 |
| 1990s | 13,201 |
| 2000s | 6,503 |
| 2010s | 1,235 |
| 2020s (to 2025) | 161 |
What Ashleigh means
Ashleigh means the ash-tree clearing. The Old English joins the name of the tree to a word for open ground within woodland, so it describes a place rather than a person.
Where Ashleigh comes from
Ashleigh respells Ashley, from the Old English æsc, an ash tree, joined to leah, a woodland clearing — the same leah behind Leigh, elsewhere on this site. The ash carried real weight in Germanic belief: Yggdrasil, the world tree of Norse cosmology, is an ash, and its wood was the standard timber for spear shafts, which is why æsc also meant a spear. Ashley was a male name until the 1960s.
Ashleigh in use
Ashleigh peaked in the United States in 1991, when 1,717 babies were registered, and is falling in our data. England and Wales ran a peak of 1,133 births in 1996 and Scotland 266 in 1991 — proportionally far above the American figures. It now ranks 3019th in England and Wales on 9 births and 7116th in the United States on 16, across 44,745 lifetime births in two of the seven markets we track.
How popular is Ashleigh?
In 2025, Ashleigh was given to 16 babies in the United States. It is a rare choice.
Where Ashleigh is used
US figures omit any name given to fewer than five babies in a year, so the rarest names are absent from the source rather than absent from use. Data & sources.
How Ashleigh is spelled
Birth registers count each spelling separately, so every one has its own ranking.
| Spelling | What it is | Births on record |
|---|---|---|
| Ash-Leigh | Ash-Leigh is Ashleigh written with a hyphen, recorded mostly in England and Wales. | 3 |
Names that peaked alongside Ashleigh
These names rose and fell in the same era, which is why they tend to sound like they belong together.
Parents who like Ashleigh also like
Names whose popularity has risen and fallen in step with Ashleigh over the last century — the same taste, a different name.
1 nickname for Ashleigh
Each one is a name in its own right — the figure underneath is how it is doing today, so you can see which short forms are rising and which have faded.
Ashleigh in other languages
The same name as it is spelled elsewhere — not shortenings, and not different names that merely sound alike. Each one has its own record here.
- Dutch
- Ashley
Sibling names for Ashleigh
Names from the same era that won't rhyme or share an initial with Ashleigh — the two things that make a sibling set grate.
Common questions about Ashleigh
What does the name Ashleigh mean?
The ash-tree clearing — æsc joined to leah.
Why did ash mean spear?
Ash was the standard timber for spear shafts, so the word covered both.
Was Ashley a boys' name?
Until the 1960s, yes.
Where is Ashleigh strongest?
England and Wales, where it peaked at 1,133 births in 1996.
How popular is the name Ashleigh?
In 2025, Ashleigh was given to 16 babies in the United States. It is a rare choice.
When was Ashleigh most popular?
Ashleigh peaked in 1991, when 1,717 babies were given the name. It has been falling over the past decade.
What are the nicknames for Ashleigh?
Ashleigh is usually shortened to Ash.
Is Ashleigh a good name?
That is not something records can settle, but they can tell you what you would be choosing. Ashleigh currently ranks #3,019 in the United States. It has been falling over the past decade. Everything else — how it sounds with your surname, who it reminds you of — is yours.