Hadley
Hadley was given to 2,254 girls in 2025, #121 among girls’ names; 48,691 Americans have been recorded with it since 1906 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 47,700 Americans named Hadley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 10 years old and half are between 5 and 14.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Hadley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Hadley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Hadley is “a unisex given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the senses “heath” (hǣþ) and “woodland clearing” (leah).
From Old English hǣþ (“heath”) + Old English leah (“woodland clearing”). Equivalent to heath (compare Heath) + -ley.
/ˈhædli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Hadley?
#121 among girls’ names, 2025
Hadley fell from #103 in 2015 to #121 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 1.7 to 1.4 per 1,000.
3,060 babies in 2014, the peak
Hadley peaked in 2014, when 3,060 babies were given it (3,015 girls, #100 among girls’ names). The 2,266 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 74% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2,254 | #121 | 1.4 |
| 2024 | 2,384 | #115 | 1.5 |
| 2023 | 2,312 | #119 | 1.4 |
| 2022 | 2,543 | #112 | 1.6 |
| 2021 | 2,478 | #112 | 1.5 |
| 2020 | 2,424 | #111 | 1.5 |
| 2019 | 2,574 | #112 | 1.5 |
| 2018 | 2,873 | #104 | 1.7 |
| 2017 | 2,710 | #112 | 1.6 |
| 2016 | 2,888 | #108 | 1.6 |
Every recorded year (62)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 2,975 | #103 | 1.7 |
| 2014 | 3,015 | #100 | 1.7 |
| 2013 | 2,830 | #110 | 1.6 |
| 2012 | 2,419 | #131 | 1.4 |
| 2011 | 1,759 | #178 | 1.0 |
| 2010 | 1,440 | #217 | 0.81 |
| 2009 | 887 | #365 | 0.48 |
| 2008 | 769 | #419 | 0.41 |
| 2007 | 687 | #469 | 0.36 |
| 2006 | 620 | #494 | 0.33 |
| 2005 | 450 | #625 | 0.24 |
| 2004 | 392 | #692 | 0.21 |
| 2003 | 373 | #702 | 0.20 |
| 2002 | 262 | #873 | 0.15 |
| 2001 | 266 | #858 | 0.15 |
| 2000 | 235 | #920 | 0.13 |
| 1999 | 198 | #1,029 | 0.11 |
| 1998 | 212 | #965 | 0.12 |
| 1997 | 157 | #1,169 | 0.09 |
| 1996 | 119 | #1,392 | 0.07 |
| 1995 | 102 | #1,519 | 0.06 |
| 1994 | 123 | #1,356 | 0.07 |
| 1993 | 92 | #1,643 | 0.05 |
| 1992 | 81 | #1,784 | 0.04 |
| 1991 | 64 | #2,089 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 51 | #2,408 | 0.03 |
| 1989 | 51 | #2,308 | 0.03 |
| 1988 | 37 | #2,814 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 36 | #2,732 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 39 | #2,529 | 0.02 |
| 1985 | 23 | #3,650 | 0.01 |
| 1984 | 33 | #2,746 | 0.02 |
| 1983 | 33 | #2,685 | 0.02 |
| 1982 | 33 | #2,783 | 0.02 |
| 1981 | 28 | #3,095 | 0.02 |
| 1980 | 29 | #3,022 | 0.02 |
| 1979 | 28 | #3,018 | 0.02 |
| 1978 | 21 | #3,546 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 18 | #3,949 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 23 | #3,126 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 22 | #3,194 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 18 | #3,603 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 20 | #3,270 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 19 | #3,315 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 10 | #5,248 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 13 | #4,326 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 10 | #4,825 | 0.01 |
| 1968 | 6 | #6,511 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 6 | #6,293 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 8 | #5,022 | under 0.01 |
| 1965 | 6 | #6,056 | under 0.01 |
| 1964 | 7 | #5,662 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Hadley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 48,691 Americans recorded as Hadley, 96% are girls and 4% boys. In 2025 it went to 2,254 girls and 12 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Hadley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Hadley, and how old are they?
47,700 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 48,691 Americans ever recorded as Hadley. The median Hadley alive today is 10 years old; half are between 5 and 14.
The 2020 Census counted 32,200 people named Hadley (30,849 women and girls, 1,351 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 33,989 born in the U.S. The Census count is 5% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Silent Generation | 1928-1945 | 44 |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 132 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 352 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 1,140 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 11,600 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 34,400 |
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 Hadley born?
The states with the most babies named Hadley are Texas, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, with 17% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 174 | #191 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 107 | #86 | 0.8× |
| North Carolina | 100 | #102 | 1.1× |
| Ohio | 95 | #105 | 1.0× |
| Tennessee | 90 | #73 | 1.5× |
| New York | 90 | #180 | 0.4× |
| Michigan | 89 | #77 | 0.9× |
| California | 85 | #390 | 0.3× |
| Georgia | 78 | #123 | 0.9× |
| Indiana | 75 | #76 | 1.6× |
Where Hadley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Hadley is most over-represented in North Dakota: since 1910 it was given 2.2 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 Hadley 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 66,369 babies since 1880, Hadley is the most given (73% of them). In 2025 it was given to 2,266 of their 3,162 babies (72%), 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 Hadley
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 Hadley and names like it
- Compare Hadley and AdleyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sHadley peaked in 2014.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Hadley since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Hadley: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2014The year the most babies were named Hadley.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Hadley alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with HMost given first.