Hayley
Hayley was given to 179 girls in 2025, #1,251 among girls’ names; 51,449 Americans have been recorded with it since 1960 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 50,500 Americans named Hayley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (98% of everyone recorded); the median is 28 years old and half are between 22 and 34.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Hayley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Hayley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Hayley is “a female given name transferred from the surname, popular in the UK in the 1970s and the 1980s.” Its etymology gives the senses “hay” (hēg) and “wood, clearing” (lēah).
Also “a male given name transferred from the surname, of rare usage.”
Localities in England, from Old English hēg (“hay”) + lēah (“wood, clearing”). Equivalent to hay + -ley (“lea”).
/ˈheɪli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Hayley?
#1,251 among girls’ names, 2025
Hayley fell from #548 in 2015 to #1,251 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 0.32 to 0.11 per 1,000.
2,624 babies in 1993, the peak
Hayley peaked in 1993, when 2,624 babies were given it (2,618 girls, #126 among girls’ names). The 179 births of 2025 are 7% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 179 | #1,251 | 0.11 |
| 2024 | 232 | #1,071 | 0.14 |
| 2023 | 266 | #971 | 0.17 |
| 2022 | 338 | #829 | 0.21 |
| 2021 | 409 | #704 | 0.25 |
| 2020 | 423 | #674 | 0.26 |
| 2019 | 415 | #697 | 0.25 |
| 2018 | 472 | #632 | 0.28 |
| 2017 | 496 | #612 | 0.29 |
| 2016 | 479 | #623 | 0.27 |
Every recorded year (66)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 566 | #548 | 0.32 |
| 2014 | 598 | #517 | 0.33 |
| 2013 | 546 | #544 | 0.31 |
| 2012 | 678 | #459 | 0.38 |
| 2011 | 728 | #431 | 0.41 |
| 2010 | 723 | #430 | 0.41 |
| 2009 | 756 | #423 | 0.41 |
| 2008 | 851 | #381 | 0.45 |
| 2007 | 1,110 | #306 | 0.58 |
| 2006 | 1,077 | #305 | 0.57 |
| 2005 | 1,234 | #265 | 0.67 |
| 2004 | 1,297 | #247 | 0.71 |
| 2003 | 1,867 | #174 | 1.0 |
| 2002 | 1,670 | #192 | 0.93 |
| 2001 | 1,787 | #183 | 1.0 |
| 2000 | 2,300 | #149 | 1.3 |
| 1999 | 2,261 | #144 | 1.3 |
| 1998 | 2,084 | #151 | 1.2 |
| 1997 | 2,353 | #136 | 1.4 |
| 1996 | 2,577 | #120 | 1.5 |
| 1995 | 2,359 | #135 | 1.3 |
| 1994 | 2,362 | #136 | 1.3 |
| 1993 | 2,618 | #126 | 1.4 |
| 1992 | 2,437 | #135 | 1.3 |
| 1991 | 1,755 | #170 | 0.94 |
| 1990 | 1,053 | #267 | 0.55 |
| 1989 | 932 | #285 | 0.51 |
| 1988 | 801 | #309 | 0.45 |
| 1987 | 884 | #278 | 0.51 |
| 1986 | 868 | #282 | 0.51 |
| 1985 | 664 | #357 | 0.39 |
| 1984 | 433 | #475 | 0.26 |
| 1983 | 364 | #523 | 0.22 |
| 1982 | 494 | #437 | 0.29 |
| 1981 | 440 | #480 | 0.26 |
| 1980 | 229 | #728 | 0.14 |
| 1979 | 243 | #696 | 0.15 |
| 1978 | 236 | #676 | 0.15 |
| 1977 | 218 | #711 | 0.14 |
| 1976 | 91 | #1,239 | 0.06 |
| 1975 | 98 | #1,180 | 0.07 |
| 1974 | 101 | #1,145 | 0.07 |
| 1973 | 70 | #1,407 | 0.05 |
| 1972 | 74 | #1,357 | 0.05 |
| 1971 | 91 | #1,232 | 0.05 |
| 1970 | 82 | #1,310 | 0.05 |
| 1969 | 87 | #1,195 | 0.05 |
| 1968 | 103 | #1,024 | 0.06 |
| 1967 | 62 | #1,404 | 0.04 |
| 1966 | 85 | #1,153 | 0.05 |
| 1965 | 71 | #1,280 | 0.04 |
| 1964 | 82 | #1,221 | 0.04 |
| 1963 | 71 | #1,310 | 0.04 |
| 1962 | 46 | #1,679 | 0.02 |
| 1961 | 18 | #3,000 | 0.01 |
| 1960 | 9 | #4,576 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Hayley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Hayley has been given almost only to girls: 46 boys in 66 years of records.
Girls and boys named Hayley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Hayley, and how old are they?
50,500 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 98% of the 51,449 Americans ever recorded as Hayley. The median Hayley alive today is 28 years old; half are between 22 and 34.
The 2020 Census counted 47,063 people named Hayley (47,009 women and girls, 54 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 48,999 born in the U.S. The Census count is 4% below that prediction.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 | 196 |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 1,820 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 20,600 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 22,500 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 5,390 |
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 Hayley born?
The states with the most babies named Hayley are California, New York and Texas, with 43% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 22 | #1,162 | 0.8× |
| New York | 18 | #878 | 0.8× |
| Texas | 16 | #1,489 | 0.8× |
| Florida | 15 | #1,019 | 0.9× |
| Virginia | 10 | #715 | 1.0× |
| North Carolina | 9 | #1,008 | 1.1× |
| Pennsylvania | 7 | #1,153 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 6 | #1,434 | 0.9× |
| Washington | 6 | #968 | 1.1× |
| Michigan | 5 | #1,289 | 0.9× |
Where Hayley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Hayley is most over-represented in Kansas: since 1960 it was given 1.2 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 Hayley 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 473,683 babies since 1880, Hayley is the third most given (11% of them). In 2025 it was given to 179 of their 4,023 babies (4.4%), the fourth most given that year.
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 Hayley
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 Hayley and names like it
- Compare Hayley and HaileyBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 1990sHayley peaked in 1993.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Hayley since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Hayley: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 1993The year the most babies were named Hayley.
- The names of Generation ZMost people named Hayley alive today were born 1997-2012.
- Names starting with HMost given first.