Meaning and history
From an English surname derived from a town name meaning “hay clearing,” from Old English heg “hay” and leah “clearing,” Hayley became known as a given name, especially in the United Kingdom, through the British child actress Hayley Mills (1946-). It is the most common spelling in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, while in the United States Haley and Hailey are more popular.
20062006: 1,077 births, rank #305
2007: 1,110 births, rank #306
2008: 851 births, rank #380
2009: 756 births, rank #423
2010: 723 births, rank #430
20112011: 728 births, rank #431
2012: 678 births, rank #459
2013: 546 births, rank #544
2014: 598 births, rank #517
2015: 566 births, rank #548
20162016: 479 births, rank #623
2017: 496 births, rank #611
2018: 472 births, rank #632
2019: 415 births, rank #697
2020: 423 births, rank #674
20212021: 409 births, rank #704
2022: 338 births, rank #829
2023: 266 births, rank #971
2024: 232 births, rank #1,070
20252025: 179 births, rank #1,250
Hayley moved from #829 to #971 for girls between 2022 and 2023. Its highest annual birth count came in 1993, with 2,618 births.