Ainsley
Ainsley was given to 621 girls in 2025, #483 among girls’ names; 20,896 Americans have been recorded with it since 1950 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 20,700 Americans named Ainsley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 14 years old and half are between 8 and 20.
Ainsley climbed 221 places in 2025, the #25 climb among the girls’ top 1,000.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Ainsley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Ainsley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Ainsley is “a unisex given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the senses “alone, solitary” (anne) and “hermitage” (ānsetl) and “woodland, clearing” (lēah).
Habitational surname for someone from Annesley, Nottinghamshire or Ansley, Warwickshire, both from Old English anne (“alone, solitary”) or ānsetl (“hermitage”) + lēah (“woodland, clearing”).
/ˈeɪnzli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Ainsley?
#483 among girls’ names, 2025
Ainsley fell from #338 in 2015 to #483 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.54 to 0.39 per 1,000.
1,013 babies in 2014, the peak
Ainsley peaked in 2014, when 1,013 babies were given it (1,001 girls, #337 among girls’ names). The 629 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 62% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 621 | #483 | 0.39 |
| 2024 | 399 | #704 | 0.25 |
| 2023 | 498 | #598 | 0.31 |
| 2022 | 622 | #507 | 0.38 |
| 2021 | 845 | #364 | 0.51 |
| 2020 | 872 | #355 | 0.54 |
| 2019 | 654 | #478 | 0.39 |
| 2018 | 774 | #399 | 0.46 |
| 2017 | 902 | #352 | 0.52 |
| 2016 | 970 | #344 | 0.55 |
Every recorded year (59)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 967 | #338 | 0.54 |
| 2014 | 1,001 | #337 | 0.56 |
| 2013 | 974 | #332 | 0.56 |
| 2012 | 930 | #341 | 0.53 |
| 2011 | 891 | #363 | 0.51 |
| 2010 | 898 | #355 | 0.51 |
| 2009 | 772 | #412 | 0.42 |
| 2008 | 719 | #443 | 0.38 |
| 2007 | 704 | #458 | 0.37 |
| 2006 | 693 | #456 | 0.36 |
| 2005 | 691 | #440 | 0.37 |
| 2004 | 764 | #399 | 0.42 |
| 2003 | 686 | #437 | 0.38 |
| 2002 | 636 | #454 | 0.35 |
| 2001 | 578 | #483 | 0.32 |
| 2000 | 124 | #1,479 | 0.07 |
| 1999 | 109 | #1,546 | 0.06 |
| 1998 | 112 | #1,506 | 0.06 |
| 1997 | 77 | #1,896 | 0.04 |
| 1996 | 82 | #1,790 | 0.05 |
| 1995 | 72 | #1,915 | 0.04 |
| 1994 | 61 | #2,183 | 0.03 |
| 1993 | 68 | #2,028 | 0.04 |
| 1992 | 73 | #1,903 | 0.04 |
| 1991 | 76 | #1,851 | 0.04 |
| 1990 | 84 | #1,731 | 0.04 |
| 1989 | 74 | #1,800 | 0.04 |
| 1988 | 67 | #1,835 | 0.04 |
| 1987 | 46 | #2,307 | 0.03 |
| 1986 | 39 | #2,511 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 29 | #3,084 | 0.02 |
| 1984 | 21 | #3,726 | 0.01 |
| 1983 | 25 | #3,243 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 23 | #3,530 | 0.01 |
| 1981 | 17 | #4,344 | 0.01 |
| 1980 | 14 | #4,978 | 0.01 |
| 1979 | 16 | #4,423 | 0.01 |
| 1978 | 13 | #4,934 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 12 | #5,213 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 10 | #5,602 | 0.01 |
| 1975 | 11 | #5,162 | 0.01 |
| 1974 | 5 | #8,795 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 10 | #5,193 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 10 | #5,111 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 5 | #8,337 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 7 | #6,370 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 5 | #7,478 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 5 | #6,545 | under 0.01 |
| 1961 | 7 | #5,311 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Ainsley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 20,896 Americans recorded as Ainsley, 98% are girls and 2% boys. In 2025 it went to 621 girls and 8 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Ainsley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Ainsley, and how old are they?
20,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 20,896 Americans ever recorded as Ainsley. The median Ainsley alive today is 14 years old; half are between 8 and 20.
The 2020 Census counted 16,841 people named Ainsley (16,141 women and girls, 700 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 17,065 born in the U.S. The Census count is 1% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 17 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 162 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 925 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 9,440 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 10,200 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Ainsley born?
The states with the most babies named Ainsley are Texas, California and Florida, with 22% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 56 | #559 | 0.9× |
| California | 42 | #731 | 0.5× |
| Florida | 33 | #542 | 0.7× |
| Illinois | 31 | #337 | 1.0× |
| Michigan | 27 | #330 | 1.1× |
| Indiana | 27 | #258 | 1.2× |
| Ohio | 26 | #430 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 25 | #428 | 1.0× |
| New York | 22 | #732 | 0.5× |
| Virginia | 20 | #396 | 1.4× |
Where Ainsley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Ainsley is most over-represented in Louisiana: since 1950 it was given 1.9 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Ainsley with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 38,567 babies since 1880, Ainsley is the most given (54% of them). In 2025 it was given to 629 of their 956 babies (66%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Ainsley
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Ainsley and names like it
- Compare Ainsley and AnsleyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sAinsley peaked in 2014.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Ainsley since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Ainsley: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Ainsley.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Ainsley alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with AMost given first.