Hailey
- Pronunciation
- [Hai-ley]
- Gender
- Female
- Meaning
- "Field Of Hay. Usually A Surname. Variant Of Hayley, Hayleigh, Haleigh, Haley."
- Origin
- English
About the Name Hailey
Hailey is the modern American spelling variant of Haley, descending from the English place-name Hailey meaning "hay clearing" or "hay meadow" — from Old English hēg (hay) plus lēah (clearing, meadow). The surname identified medieval English families originating from villages with this geography. Several spellings — Hailey, Haley, Hayley, Halley — are tracked separately by SSA but share the same etymological origin.
The name's transition from surname to American first name accelerated dramatically in the 1980s, partly through the immense cultural impact of British astronomer Edmond Halley (1656–1742) and Halley's Comet, partly through American actress Halle Berry (born Halle Maria Berry, 1966 — using a related spelling), and most significantly through Disney Channel and Nickelodeon star Hailey Williams and the young singer/actress Hailey Bieber (née Baldwin, born 1996). The name's modern surge is closely tied to the broader pop-culture register of the 1990s-2000s American teen-girl naming era.
Hailey climbed from outside the US top 500 in 1985 to the top 25 girls' rank by 2005 and has held a top-100 range since. The name's appeal is its compact pleasantness — two short syllables, soft consonants, instantly readable, and tonal versatility across casual and formal registers. The various spelling variants reflect different parental aesthetic preferences: Hailey (most common modern American), Haley (more traditional), Hayley (more British). Common nicknames Hails, Hai, and the rare Lee each carry distinct registers. International forms are minimal since the name is essentially modern English-American. The original surname spelling Hailey is the closest historical anchor.
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration name data, 1880–2024 (methodology). By Marvin Tang.
Quick Facts About Hailey
US Popularity History (1996–2025)
Annual US births named Hailey by gender, from US Social Security Administration records. Peak year: 2003 with 8,798 girls named Hailey (girl rank #26 that year).
Where it stands today: in 2025, ranked #104 for girls (2,556 US births). That's 78 places below its 2003 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 Hailey Most Popular?
Average girl-name rank within each state across 2016–2025 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 Hailey the strongest states are Wyoming, New Jersey, New York.
Strongest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wyoming | #32 | 36 |
| 2 | New Jersey | #41 | 1,365 |
| 3 | New York | #41 | 2,693 |
| 4 | Connecticut | #43 | 505 |
| 5 | New Mexico | #58 | 207 |
| 6 | California | #60 | 4,471 |
| 7 | Maryland | #62 | 634 |
| 8 | Massachusetts | #65 | 740 |
| 9 | Pennsylvania | #69 | 1,215 |
| 10 | Delaware | #73 | 84 |
Weakest girls-name states
| # | State | Avg rank | Births |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arkansas | #267 | 122 |
| 2 | Alabama | #235 | 200 |
| 3 | Oklahoma | #215 | 184 |
| 4 | Louisiana | #205 | 243 |
| 5 | West Virginia | #191 | 79 |
| 6 | Mississippi | #191 | 147 |
| 7 | Tennessee | #188 | 363 |
| 8 | Nebraska | #177 | 135 |
| 9 | South Carolina | #171 | 258 |
| 10 | Kentucky | #169 | 243 |
Source: SSA state-level baby-name dataset 2016–2025. States with fewer than 3 years of data for Hailey in this window are excluded. Births < 5 in a given state-year are suppressed by SSA for privacy.
Variant Forms
Looking for names like Hailey?
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 Hailey to Other Popular Names
Side-by-side popularity charts and crossover years for Hailey against today's most popular girls-name peers (top 8 by US births in the last 10 years of SSA records).
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