Paisley
Paisley was given to 3,508 girls in 2025, #67 among girls’ names; 65,456 Americans have been recorded with it since 1966 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 65,000 Americans named Paisley and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 9 years old and half are between 5 and 12.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Paisley by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Paisley mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Paisley is “a unisex given name from the surname.” Its etymology gives the sense “pasture” (Pàislig).
From Scottish Gaelic Pàislig (“pasture”). Despite occasional respellings such as Paisleigh, this word does not etymologically contain the suffix -ley/-leigh.
/ˈpeɪzli/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Paisley?
#67 among girls’ names, 2025
Paisley fell from #45 in 2015 to #67 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born fell from 2.9 to 2.2 per 1,000.
5,091 babies in 2015, the peak
Paisley peaked in 2015, when 5,091 girls were given it, #45 among girls’ names. The 3,513 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 69% of that peak.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 3,508 | #67 | 2.2 |
| 2024 | 3,554 | #61 | 2.2 |
| 2023 | 3,749 | #56 | 2.3 |
| 2022 | 4,056 | #53 | 2.5 |
| 2021 | 4,299 | #52 | 2.6 |
| 2020 | 4,380 | #49 | 2.7 |
| 2019 | 4,280 | #53 | 2.6 |
| 2018 | 4,366 | #52 | 2.6 |
| 2017 | 4,958 | #45 | 2.9 |
| 2016 | 4,883 | #46 | 2.8 |
Every recorded year (55)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 5,091 | #45 | 2.9 |
| 2014 | 4,501 | #53 | 2.5 |
| 2013 | 3,607 | #80 | 2.1 |
| 2012 | 2,924 | #104 | 1.7 |
| 2011 | 1,644 | #194 | 0.93 |
| 2010 | 1,328 | #238 | 0.75 |
| 2009 | 1,023 | #319 | 0.56 |
| 2008 | 700 | #450 | 0.37 |
| 2007 | 491 | #613 | 0.26 |
| 2006 | 327 | #826 | 0.17 |
| 2005 | 228 | #1,049 | 0.12 |
| 2004 | 183 | #1,217 | 0.10 |
| 2003 | 99 | #1,870 | 0.05 |
| 2002 | 109 | #1,690 | 0.06 |
| 2001 | 100 | #1,787 | 0.06 |
| 2000 | 89 | #1,915 | 0.05 |
| 1999 | 59 | #2,457 | 0.03 |
| 1998 | 54 | #2,555 | 0.03 |
| 1997 | 50 | #2,580 | 0.03 |
| 1996 | 56 | #2,360 | 0.03 |
| 1995 | 69 | #1,994 | 0.04 |
| 1994 | 83 | #1,761 | 0.05 |
| 1993 | 93 | #1,632 | 0.05 |
| 1992 | 81 | #1,791 | 0.04 |
| 1991 | 58 | #2,255 | 0.03 |
| 1990 | 51 | #2,421 | 0.03 |
| 1989 | 39 | #2,846 | 0.02 |
| 1988 | 34 | #3,014 | 0.02 |
| 1987 | 28 | #3,306 | 0.02 |
| 1986 | 23 | #3,727 | 0.01 |
| 1985 | 10 | #6,804 | 0.01 |
| 1982 | 8 | #7,994 | under 0.01 |
| 1981 | 7 | #8,760 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 7 | #8,790 | under 0.01 |
| 1978 | 16 | #4,398 | 0.01 |
| 1977 | 10 | #6,202 | 0.01 |
| 1976 | 5 | #10,409 | under 0.01 |
| 1974 | 6 | #8,403 | under 0.01 |
| 1973 | 6 | #8,117 | under 0.01 |
| 1972 | 6 | #7,947 | under 0.01 |
| 1970 | 8 | #6,200 | under 0.01 |
| 1969 | 8 | #5,827 | under 0.01 |
| 1968 | 7 | #6,069 | under 0.01 |
| 1967 | 5 | #7,546 | under 0.01 |
| 1966 | 5 | #7,315 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Paisley a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Paisley has been given almost only to girls: 87 boys in 55 years of records.
Girls and boys named Paisley: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Paisley, and how old are they?
65,000 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 65,456 Americans ever recorded as Paisley. The median Paisley alive today is 9 years old; half are between 5 and 12.
The 2020 Census counted 37,129 people named Paisley (37,039 women and girls, 90 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 42,706 born in the U.S. The Census count is 13% 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 83 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 625 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 9,340 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 55,000 |
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 Paisley born?
The states with the most babies named Paisley are Texas, California and Ohio, with 18% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 272 | #110 | 0.8× |
| California | 181 | #181 | 0.4× |
| Ohio | 180 | #39 | 1.3× |
| Florida | 177 | #90 | 0.8× |
| Pennsylvania | 159 | #49 | 0.9× |
| Georgia | 151 | #46 | 1.2× |
| North Carolina | 140 | #58 | 1.2× |
| Michigan | 132 | #44 | 1.0× |
| Tennessee | 131 | #34 | 1.6× |
| Indiana | 120 | #33 | 1.4× |
Where Paisley is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Paisley is most over-represented in West Virginia: since 1966 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 Paisley 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 78,277 babies since 1880, Paisley is the most given (84% of them). In 2025 it was given to 3,513 of their 3,986 babies (88%), 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 Paisley
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 Paisley and names like it
- Compare Paisley and PaisleeBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2010sPaisley peaked in 2015.
- Texas’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Paisley since 1910.
- From surnamesWiktionary’s origin for Paisley: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2015The year the most babies were named Paisley.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Paisley alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with PMost given first.