Hadley is a female first name. In very rare cases it is also used for boys.
The name Hadley isn’t among the current fashionable names in our top 10 stats, but nonetheless, it’s still very popular and common. In our SmartGenius ranking of all girls names, Hadley ranks 108. Recently, out of every 10,000 newborn girls, approximately 17 were named Hadley. In the entire USA, approximately 38,139 people – children, adults and seniors – currently bear the name Hadley. That is 0.01 % of all living Americans.
Hadley is of English origin and is believed to have originated as a place name. It is derived from the Old English words ‘heath’ meaning ‘heathland’ and ‘leah’ meaning ‘clearing’ or ‘meadow.’ Therefore, the name Hadley is thought to mean ‘heathland meadow’ or ‘clearing in the heath’.
What is a heathland? A heathland is a type of ecosystem characterized by low-growing shrubs and trees, such as heather and gorse, that grow on acidic soils. Heathlands are typically found in regions with low rainfall and poor soil quality, such as sandy or rocky terrain.
This is a real surprise! Hadley is a name that has been around for a long time, but only really took off in the 21st century. In the year 2015, it reached its best rank at #97 according to our SmartGenius statistics. This makes Hadley much more popular than in previous generations, where it was so rare for several years that it was not even recorded in the statistics. While the name Hadley was observed for the first time ever in 1906, it now seems to have found its place in the zeitgeist of the 21st century. In 2015, the year of its highest popularity, the name was given a total of 3,011 times. Whether this beautiful girls' name can repeat or even exceed its previous best ranking in the coming years remains to be seen, but the prospects are promising given the positive trend.
In years where the graph has no value, the name Hadley was given less than five times or even none at all in the entire USA.
In 2022, Hadley ranked #108 in our SmartGenius statistics. In absolute figures, this means it was given to newborn girls a total of 2,556 times. No one knows what names (or combinations of numbers and letters) will be popular 50 years from now, but given its popularity in the early years of this millennium, there is a good chance that Hadley will not disappear from the screen anytime soon.
The name Hadley may not be in the top rankings of the most popular girls’ names, but it is one of the few female given names, along with only 536 others, that can be found in every single state in the U.S. from Alaska to Florida and from California to New York. Of course, the name occurs more frequently in some states than in others – and Hadley is apparently especially popular in Utah. Although the name is not one of the top 100 most popular women’s names here either, one in 1,124 women in Utah is called Hadley. In total, that’s 1,039 women who feel addressed when the name Hadley is shouted loudly across Utah and who ensure that their name makes it to #295 in our SmartGenius ranking of the most common female names in this nice state. If you asked all women in the entire U.S. for their first name, you would hear Hadley as the answer a total of 37,983 times. This places Hadley at #611 in our SmartGenius statistics for the most popular women’s names in the whole of the USA. This is true for all currently living women across all states and age groups – the recent popularity of the name Hadley as a baby name is, of course, a bit different, as you can see from the statistics above.
Well, you might say, you probably figured that out yourself! But what you might not know is: The letter H is quite rare as a first letter for girls' names: only 1.7% of all common girls' names in the US begin with H. The most common first letters of girls' names, by the way, are A, S and M, while U, X and Q are the least common initials of girls' names.
With six letters, the name Hadley 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.
Therefore: As 1.7% of all girls' names begin with an H, this initial letter is less common than the other letters on average. Interesting detail: of all the names that begin with an H, Helen is the most common.
If your name is Hadley 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...
So that everyone really understands you when you have to spell the name Hadley, you can simply say:
Hat
Apple
Dinosaur
Lion
Elephant
Yoyo
Braille is made up of dots, which the blind and visually impaired can feel to read words.
Hadley
Hadley
Just use American Sign Language!
These flags are used for maritime communication - each flag represents a letter.
H
A
D
L
E
Y
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.
H
A
D
L
E
Y
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. Hadley sounds like this:
