Hailey
Meaning
"hay meadow," from the surname Hayley and the English villages behind it; barely used as a first name before the 1960s, then a chart-climber with a dozen spellings, of which Hailey leads in the US. Fresh-air sound, minimal baggage
The story
Hailey started life as an English place name, the hay meadow, attached to a handful of villages and then to the families who came from them. As a girls' first name it was essentially unknown before the 1960s, when the young British actress Hayley Mills became a household face; American parents seem to have heard the name through her, though the early numbers were tiny. The real surge came later and belonged to this spelling: Hailey entered the US records in the 1970s, gathered pace through the 1990s, and held near its peak through the 2000s and 2010s. Along the way the name splintered into a dozen spellings, with Hailey now the clear American leader. What survives all the variation is the sound itself: light, fresh-aired, and rural in the pleasantest way, a meadow that fits on a birth certificate.
Hailey's name family
One shared root links 4 names in English.
Shared root: from an Old English place name and surname, "hay meadow"; one modern given name in many spellings
The family
More branches
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Hailey peaked in the 2000s and the 2010s in nearly equal measure.
See popularity in Brazil
Popularity in Brazil
63 people · the #56,841 first name in Brazil · median age 2
The census also counted 38 born between 2020 and August 2022, too recent a span to chart.
Source: IBGE, Censo Demográfico 2022
How the spellings raced
Across these spellings, Hailey led in the group’s busiest decade, the 2000s. So far in the 2020s, Hailey leads.
Decade totals from US Social Security birth registrations. Every line uses the same scale. The 2020s covers 2020–2025.
When you meet Hailey
Most people given the name Hailey in the United States are teenagers or young adults today.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Hailey deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Hailey truly comes from, how it traveled, and what a century of records reveals. If you have grown a tree on nametree, it also considers how Hailey fits with your family’s names and surname.
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