Hailey
Hailey was given to 2,556 girls in 2025, #104 among girls’ names; 181,710 Americans have been recorded with it since 1922 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 180,000 Americans named Hailey and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 20 years old and half are between 13 and 25.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Hailey by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Hailey mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Hailey is “a unisex given name transferred from the surname.” Its etymology gives the senses “hay” (hīeġ) and “clearing” (lēah).
From Old English hīeġ (“hay”) + lēah (“clearing”).
/ˈheɪli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Hailey?
#104 among girls’ names, 2025
Hailey fell from #64 in 2015 to #104 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 2.4 to 1.6 per 1,000.
8,808 babies in 2003, the peak
Hailey peaked in 2003, when 8,808 babies were given it (8,798 girls, #26 among girls’ names). The 2,561 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 29% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2,556 | #104 | 1.6 |
| 2024 | 2,627 | #100 | 1.6 |
| 2023 | 2,786 | #90 | 1.7 |
| 2022 | 3,005 | #79 | 1.8 |
| 2021 | 3,248 | #77 | 2.0 |
| 2020 | 3,157 | #81 | 2.0 |
| 2019 | 3,491 | #76 | 2.1 |
| 2018 | 3,474 | #79 | 2.0 |
| 2017 | 3,712 | #72 | 2.2 |
| 2016 | 3,947 | #68 | 2.2 |
Every recorded year (60)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 4,251 | #64 | 2.4 |
| 2014 | 4,619 | #51 | 2.6 |
| 2013 | 5,031 | #43 | 2.9 |
| 2012 | 5,917 | #32 | 3.4 |
| 2011 | 6,282 | #32 | 3.6 |
| 2010 | 7,027 | #19 | 4.0 |
| 2009 | 7,325 | #25 | 4.0 |
| 2008 | 7,872 | #25 | 4.2 |
| 2007 | 8,439 | #23 | 4.4 |
| 2006 | 8,423 | #25 | 4.4 |
| 2005 | 8,595 | #26 | 4.7 |
| 2004 | 8,685 | #24 | 4.7 |
| 2003 | 8,798 | #26 | 4.8 |
| 2002 | 7,992 | #31 | 4.4 |
| 2001 | 8,032 | #33 | 4.5 |
| 2000 | 7,829 | #35 | 4.3 |
| 1999 | 5,369 | #54 | 3.0 |
| 1998 | 4,473 | #70 | 2.5 |
| 1997 | 4,148 | #80 | 2.4 |
| 1996 | 3,762 | #93 | 2.1 |
| 1995 | 2,965 | #111 | 1.7 |
| 1994 | 2,688 | #119 | 1.5 |
| 1993 | 2,531 | #130 | 1.4 |
| 1992 | 1,915 | #160 | 1.0 |
| 1991 | 1,506 | #196 | 0.80 |
| 1990 | 946 | #293 | 0.50 |
| 1989 | 752 | #339 | 0.41 |
| 1988 | 673 | #363 | 0.38 |
| 1987 | 537 | #415 | 0.31 |
| 1986 | 454 | #472 | 0.26 |
| 1985 | 370 | #538 | 0.22 |
| 1984 | 226 | #725 | 0.13 |
| 1983 | 182 | #844 | 0.11 |
| 1982 | 170 | #895 | 0.10 |
| 1981 | 144 | #1,010 | 0.09 |
| 1980 | 81 | #1,485 | 0.05 |
| 1979 | 85 | #1,435 | 0.05 |
| 1978 | 102 | #1,225 | 0.07 |
| 1977 | 110 | #1,149 | 0.07 |
| 1976 | 22 | #3,212 | 0.02 |
| 1975 | 24 | #2,995 | 0.02 |
| 1974 | 14 | #4,303 | 0.01 |
| 1973 | 9 | #5,719 | 0.01 |
| 1972 | 11 | #4,892 | 0.01 |
| 1971 | 11 | #4,911 | 0.01 |
| 1970 | 9 | #5,541 | 0.01 |
| 1969 | 7 | #6,176 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 6 | #6,512 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 6 | #6,057 | under 0.01 |
| 1963 | 6 | #6,120 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Hailey a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Hailey has been given almost only to girls: 276 boys in 62 years of records.
Girls and boys named Hailey: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Hailey, and how old are they?
180,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 181,710 Americans ever recorded as Hailey. The median Hailey alive today is 20 years old; half are between 13 and 25.
The 2020 Census counted 147,731 people named Hailey (147,480 women and girls, 251 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 163,603 born in the U.S. The Census count is 10% below that prediction. Possible reasons: people who give a short form or another name to the Census, and a survival estimate that can run high.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 5 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 471 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 19,500 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 114,000 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 45,700 |
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 Hailey born?
The states with the most babies named Hailey are California, Texas and New York, with 35% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 363 | #76 | 0.9× |
| Texas | 270 | #111 | 0.9× |
| New York | 253 | #49 | 0.9× |
| Florida | 161 | #103 | 0.9× |
| Pennsylvania | 129 | #68 | 0.9× |
| New Jersey | 125 | #54 | 0.9× |
| Massachusetts | 93 | #54 | 0.9× |
| Illinois | 81 | #112 | 0.8× |
| Virginia | 80 | #83 | 0.9× |
| Ohio | 75 | #143 | 0.9× |
Where Hailey is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Hailey is most over-represented in Idaho: since 1922 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 Hailey 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 474,527 babies since 1880, Hailey is the most given (38% of them). In 2025 it was given to 2,561 of their 3,904 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 Hailey
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 Hailey and names like it
- Compare Hailey and HaleyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2000sHailey peaked in 2003.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Hailey since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Hailey: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2003The year the most babies were named Hailey.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Hailey alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with HMost given first.