Paisley
Meaning
place name, pattern
The story
Paisley traveled from a Scottish place to a fabric pattern and then to the nursery. The surname comes from the town near Glasgow, whose deeper place-name origin may reach back to Latin basilica, church, though that derivation is uncertain. The curved, teardrop-shaped textile design took the town's name because Paisley became a major center for producing the patterned shawls. Modern parents then adopted the familiar place and pattern word as a given name. The US curve is almost empty through the twentieth century, begins to register in the 2000s, climbs sharply in the 2010s, and reaches its highest point in the 2020s. That makes Paisley one of the batch's clearest current-generation names. It carries Scottish geography and textile history, but its life as a first name is strikingly new, bright, and entirely visible in the record.
Popularity, 1890–2024
Shape drawn from US Social Security baby-name records. Paisley peaked in the 2020s.
When you meet Paisley
Most people given the name Paisley in the United States are children or teenagers today. The name belongs to this generation.
Estimated from US Social Security birth registrations and typical lifespans; a rough guide, not a rule.
The Paisley deep dive
Whether you’re naming a baby or exploring your own name’s history, this is a personal letter, not a list: where Paisley 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 Paisley fits with your family’s names and surname.
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