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The first name 
Ashley

Ashley is a first name typically given to girls, but in rare cases also used as a boys name.

The name Ashley is very popular!

The first name Ashley is one of the top 100 most popular girls names in the US – currently at #99 in our SmartGenius ranking. Over 1,000 babies each year are named Ashley, accounting for approximately 0.20 % of all newborn girls. In total, there are currently 860,663 people – children, adults and seniors – named Ashley living in the United States, which is approximately 0.26 % of the entire population.

You won't believe all there is 
to discover about the name
 
Ashley

What does the name 
Ashley mean?

Ashley is another name derived from nature. The name is a combination of the Old English ‘aesc’ for ‘ash’ (as in ash tree) and ‘leah’ for ‘forest’.

Did you know... that for several centuries, starting in the 1500s, Ashley was mostly used as a boys name? In the UK the name is still predominantly used for boys instead of girls ike in the U.S..

A lot of famous people are also called Ashley

An actress

Ashley Judd (* 1968)
The US-american actress (née Ashley Tyler Ciminella) is the daughter of country music singer Naomi Judd. She rose to fame for movies like »Heat« (1995), »A Time to Kill« (1996), »Frida« (2002), and »Olympus Has Fallen« (2013). Judd is an ambassador for YouthAIDS, an education and prevention program that works to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS.

Another actress

Ashley Victoria Benson (*1989)
Ashley Benson is a US-American actress who played the role of Hanna Marin in the US series Pretty Little Liars from 2010 to 2017. Apart from that she has starred in movies such as »Bring It On: In It to Win It« (2007), »Spring Breakers« (2012), and »Private Property« (2022). She has been awarded with 4 Teen Choice Awards amongst others.

An actress, singer and voice actress

Ashley Michelle Tisdale (*1985)
Tisdale gained international fame for the role of Maddie Fitzpatrick in the Disney Channel television series »Hotel Zack & Cody« and for the role of Sharpay Evans in the »High School Musical« trilogy. In 2007, she released her first solo album, »Headstrong« and has worked as a voice actress for movies such as »Baby Shark's Big Movie!« (2023).

A professional soccer player

Ashley Simon Young (*1985)
The English soccer player is currently under contract with Everton FC in the Premier League where he plays as a full-back or winger. In 2009 he won the PFA Young Player of the Year award and signed with Manchester United in 2011. During his time at United he won the Premier League (2013), the FA Cup (2016) and the Europa League (2017).

A model and television presenter

Ashley Graham Ervin (*1987)
Graham is a US-American model who is usually booked as a so-called plus-size model. She was the first plus-size model to be featured in the Swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated in early 2016. She is the best-known model of the fashion brand Lane Bryant. In 2017 she published her book, »A New Model: What Confidence, Beauty, and Power Really Look Like«.

A businesswoman, fashion designer and former actress

Ashley Fuller Olsen (*1986)
Ashley began her acting carrer at the age of 9 months together with her twin sister Mary-Kate. They gained worldwide fame in the late 1980s with the television series »Full House«. Since then, they have appeared in numerous TV series, movies and commercials. They are also successful entrepreneurs through various companies of their own.

Go on a journey to places 
with your name

When you hear the name Ashley, you might first think of a woman or a girl. But did you know that there are also places with the name Ashley? Are you also called Ashley? Maybe one day you will visit the places that are named just like you...

A River

»The Ashley River« (officially Ashley River / Rakahuri) flows through the Canterbury region of New Zealand into the Pacific Ocean.

A neighborhood

There is a neighborhood in Cherokee County, Georgia, that goes by the name »Ashley Forest«.

Ashley...

is the name of many lakes in the US. They are situated in Illinois, California, Mississippi, Montana and North Dakota.

Ashley...

is also the name of many places in the USA, to be found in the states of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia amongst others.

A mountain

»Mount Ashley« is an approx. 1.150 m high mountain on the island of South Georgia. It is named after Clifford Warren Ashley, who was a US artist, author, and whaling historian.

Ashley -
especially popular in Nevada

Ashley is one of the most common names in the U.S. – in all states combined, 849,495 women would currently turn around if you called out ASHLEY really loud. Across all states and age groups, this lands Ashley on position 19 in our SmartGenius ranking of the top female names – of course, the current popularity as a baby name for newborns looks somewhat different, as you can see from the statistics above. With so many women named Ashley, it’s no surprise that the name is widely used in every single state in the U.S., but would you have guessed that it’s especially popular in Nevada? Here, 1,13% of all female residents bear the name Ashley – that is a total of 5,068 women with this popular name and no other state has as many women named Ashley relative to its population. But that’s not all the popularity: in Nevada Ashley belongs to the top 10 of all womens names – the 5,068 elevate their name up to place #3 in the SmartGenius ranking of the most common female names for Nevada.

Ashley has 6 letters 
and begins with an A

Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter A is the most popular first letter for girls’ names. 11.8% of all common girls’ names in the US start with this letter. The second most common first letter in girls' names is S.

With six letters, the name Ashley is of average length. In fact, 28% of all common first names in the US consist of exactly six letters. 24% of all first names are shorter, while 48% have seven letters or more. On average, first names in the US (not counting hyphenated names) are 6.5 letters long. There are no significant differences between boys' and girls' names.

That means that if 11.8% of all girls' names start with an A, this initial letter occurs over three times as often as all other letters on average. And, by the way, of all the girls' names that begin with the letter A, the name Ashley is the most common.

Other names with 
A, s, h, l, e and y

If you take all the letters in the name Ashley – A, s, h, l, e and y – and put them together again, you can form other names, such as Ashely or others.

With hands, flags and sounds 
How to say Ashley

If your name is Ashley and someone asks after your name, you can of course just tell them what it is. But sometimes that isn't so easy - what if it's too loud, and you don't understand them well? Or what if the other person is so far away that you can see them but not hear them? In these situations, you can communicate your name in so many other ways: you call spell it, sign it, or even use a flag to wave it...

This is how you spell the name Ashley

So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Ashley, you can simply say:

Apple

Sun

Hat

Lion

Elephant

Yoyo

This is how the name Ashley is spelled in the NATO phonetic alphabet

The NATO alphabet often helps people spell words on the phone or radio when there are communication problems.

How do you write Ashley in Braille?

Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.

Ashley

Ashley

You want to tell a deaf person that your name is Ashley

Just use American Sign Language!

The name Ashley is particularly colorful in the Semaphore flag signaling system!

These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.

A
S
H
L
E
Y

Have you ever waved the name Ashley

In the navy, sailors of two ships might wave flags to each other to send messages. A sailor holds two flags in specific positions to represent different letters.

A
S
H
L
E
Y

Beeping like crazy...

In Morse code, letters and other characters are represented only by a series of short and long tones. For example, a short tone followed by a long tone stands for the letter A. Ashley sounds like this: