Ashle
Feminine variant of Ashley, of Old English origin meaning "dweller near the ash tree meadow".
Name Census estimates that about 525 living Americans carry the first name Ashle. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Ashle today is around 34 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Ashle births was 1988 (36 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Ashle. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
People living today
525
~ 1 in 652,865 Americans
Peak year
1988
36 babies that year
Average age
34
years old
2011 SSA rank
#15,057
Tracked since 1980
Census
Ashle in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 623 people with the first name Ashle, which placed it at #17,614 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#17,614
National first-name rank
People counted
623
623 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.2
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
39.5% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Ashle
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ashle is White at 39.5%. The next largest groups are Black (29.7%) and Hispanic (25.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Ashle described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Ashle at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White39.5% · 246
- Black or African American29.7% · 185
- Hispanic or Latino25.2% · 157
- Two or more races3.4% · 21
- Asian and Pacific Islander1.3% · 8
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.0% · 6
Popularity
Ashle: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Ashle from the 1980s through to the 2010s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 1990s, with 240 total registrations. Usage has dropped considerably from its 1990s peak. The most recent decade brought in only a fraction of the registrations that the name once attracted.
Babies born per year
Decades
Ashle by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Ashle during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Ashles live
The SSA's state-level files cover 3 states and territories. Texas, California, Ohio recorded the most babies named Ashle, while Ohio, California, Texas recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 20 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Ashle
The name Ashle is an English variant of the masculine name Ashley, which is derived from an Old English place name meaning "ash tree meadow." The name Ashley is believed to have originated in the 7th or 8th century and was initially a surname before becoming a popular given name for both sexes.
In medieval times, the name Ashley was associated with nobility and was commonly used by families with land holdings. One of the earliest recorded instances of the name was in the Domesday Book, a manuscript record of landowners commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086, which listed several individuals with the surname Ashley or variations like Asselie.
One notable historical figure with the name Ashley was Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621-1683), an influential English politician and philosopher during the reign of King Charles II. He played a significant role in the Glorious Revolution and was a proponent of religious tolerance and constitutional monarchy.
Another well-known bearer of the name was Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713), a philosopher and writer who was influential in the Age of Enlightenment. His work on morality and aesthetics had a lasting impact on Western thought.
In the 19th century, the name Ashley gained popularity as a feminine given name, with notable women including Ashley Wilkes, a character in the novel "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell, and Ashley Longworth, an American socialite and daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt.
Other historical figures with the name Ashle or Ashley include Ashley Montagu (1905-1999), an American anthropologist and humanist, and Ashley Judd (born 1968), an American actress and political activist.
While the name Ashle is less common than the traditional spelling Ashley, it has been used throughout history as a variant, particularly in England and other English-speaking regions. The name's association with nature and its historical ties to nobility and intellectualism have contributed to its enduring popularity over the centuries.
People
Ashle + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Ashle as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with A
Other first names starting with A with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Ashle: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Ashle?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 525 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Ashle going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 652,865 US residents.
Is Ashle a common name?
We classify Ashle as "Very Rare". It ranks above 85% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 546 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Ashle most popular?
The single biggest year for Ashle was 1988, when 36 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Ashle is about 34 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Ashle in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 623 people with the name Ashle, or 0.21 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #17,614 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Ashle in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Ashle?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Ashle leans strongly female. 605 people counted with this name were female (98.7%), compared with 8 male bearers (1.3%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Ashle?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Ashle is White at 39.5%. The next largest groups are Black (29.7%) and Hispanic (25.2%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Ashle most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Ashle in the 2020 Census, accounting for 39.5% (246 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Ashle in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Ashle a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Ashle in the SSA data are female. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Ashle still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Ashle in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Ashle can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Ashle?
Our sister site HowManyOfMe.org answers how many people share the name Ashle at a glance, with the living-bearer count up front.