Ashleigh
- Pronunciation
- [As-hleigh]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- Meadow Of Ash Trees.
- Origin
- English
About the Name Ashleigh
Ashleigh is the most ornate spelling variant within the Ashley family, an English place name and surname rooted in Old English æsc ("ash tree") and lēah ("woodland clearing" or "meadow") — meaning a clearing where ash trees grow. The spelling with -eigh deliberately replicates the pattern of other Old English-derived surnames such as Leigh, Raleigh, and Ameigh, giving the name a more formal, historically textured appearance on the page that gestures toward the name's genuine Old English roots. It has long been the preferred written form in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where it carries a distinctly genteel and slightly old-fashioned register that sets it apart from the plainer American Ashley. For parents in search of a more distinctive rendering of a well-loved sound, Ashleigh offered both visual elegance and cultural authenticity.
Ashleigh appears in the US Social Security top-1000 from 2000 and reached its peak rank of #275 in 2002. Its presence narrowed over the following years: #750 in 2007, #925 in 2008, and #945 in 2009, the last year it appeared in the top-1000. Over its tracked run, roughly 6,487 babies received this spelling in top-1000 years. Recorded variants include Ashely, Ashlee, Ashli, and Ashly.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Ashleigh
US Popularity History (2000–2009)
Annual US births named Ashleigh by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2002 with 1,139 girls named Ashleigh (girl rank #275 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2009, ranked #945 for girls (282 US births). That's 670 places below its 2002 peak.
Source: US Social Security Administration. Limitations: US birth-certificate data only; names appearing fewer than 5 times in a given year are suppressed for privacy; spelling variants are counted separately. For names that ranked outside the US top 100 before year 2000, only the years they reached the top 100 are shown — the chart may have gaps for less-popular historical names.
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Where in the US Is Ashleigh Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2007–2016 SSA records. A lower number means the name appears closer to the top of that state's girls-name rankings — a per-capita measure that isn't biased toward large states. For Ashleigh the strongest states are Mississippi, Kentucky, Arkansas.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | #499 | 31 |
| 2 | Kentucky | #528 | 22 |
| 3 | Arkansas | #548 | 16 |
| 4 | Tennessee | #574 | 33 |
| 5 | South Carolina | #600 | 28 |
| 6 | Alabama | #622 | 39 |
| 7 | Virginia | #631 | 100 |
| 8 | Missouri | #633 | 37 |
| 9 | Louisiana | #691 | 27 |
| 10 | North Carolina | #696 | 83 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York | #874 | 76 |
| 2 | New Jersey | #813 | 26 |
| 3 | Arizona | #793 | 26 |
| 4 | Georgia | #776 | 76 |
| 5 | Pennsylvania | #760 | 37 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | #756 | 31 |
| 7 | Ohio | #751 | 52 |
| 8 | Maryland | #734 | 35 |
| 9 | Florida | #725 | 67 |
| 10 | Michigan | #723 | 43 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2007–2016. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Ashleigh in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Ashleigh?
A dedicated page with 60+ related names — spelling variants, rhymes, alliterations, same-origin matches, and shared meaning concepts — lives at its own URL so each kind of similarity gets a deeper treatment than fits here.
Compare Ashleigh to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Ashleigh against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).