Bailei
A variant of Bailey, potentially derived from an Old English place name.
Name Census estimates that about 277 living Americans carry the first name Bailei. The name is used almost exclusively for girls. The average person named Bailei today is around 14 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Bailei births was 2018 (24 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Bailei. 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
277
~ 1 in 1,237,380 Americans
Peak year
2018
24 babies that year
Average age
14
years old
2024 SSA rank
#11,223
Tracked since 1997
Census
Bailei in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 199 people with the first name Bailei, which placed it at #38,518 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
#38,518
National first-name rank
People counted
199
199 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.1
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
Black or African American
44.2% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Bailei
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bailei is Black at 44.2%. The next largest groups are White (43.2%) and Two or More Races (5.0%). 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 Bailei 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 Bailei at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- Black or African American44.2% · 88
- White43.2% · 86
- Two or more races5.0% · 10
- Hispanic or Latino2.5% · 5
- Asian and Pacific Islander2.5% · 5
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.5% · 5
Popularity
Bailei: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Bailei from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 132 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Bailei remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Bailei 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 Bailei during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Baileis live
Origin
Meaning and history of Bailei
The name Bailei is believed to have originated from the Old English language, with its roots traced back to the 9th century AD. It is derived from the combination of two words, "bael" meaning "fire" and "leia" meaning "meadow" or "clearing." This suggests that the name may have been associated with individuals who lived in or near a clearing created by a fire in a forested area.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Bailei can be found in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a historical record dating back to the late 9th century. It mentions a person named Bailei who was a prominent landowner in the Kingdom of Wessex during the reign of King Alfred the Great.
In the 11th century, a Benedictine monk named Bailei was known for his scholarly works on theology and philosophy. He is believed to have lived in the monastery of St. Albans in Hertfordshire, England.
During the Middle Ages, the name Bailei was also found in various historical records and documents from different parts of Europe. In the 13th century, a knight named Bailei de Montfort fought in the Crusades and is mentioned in several accounts of the time.
In the 15th century, a renowned Italian artist and sculptor named Bailei Rossellino gained fame for his work on the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence. His intricate carvings and sculptures adorned several churches and monuments across Italy.
Another notable figure with the name Bailei was a 17th-century French explorer and cartographer named Bailei de la Jonquière. He was known for his expeditions and mapping of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Canadian Maritime regions, which contributed significantly to the exploration and colonization of North America.
These are just a few examples of individuals who bore the name Bailei throughout history, showcasing its long-standing presence and significance across various cultures and time periods.
People
Bailei + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Bailei as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with B
Other first names starting with B with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Bailei: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Bailei?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 277 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Bailei 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 1,237,380 US residents.
Is Bailei a common name?
We classify Bailei as "Very Rare". It ranks above 78.3% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 280 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Bailei most popular?
The single biggest year for Bailei was 2018, when 24 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Bailei is about 14 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Bailei in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 199 people with the name Bailei, or 0.07 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #38,518 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 Bailei 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 Bailei?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Bailei leans strongly female. 188 people counted with this name were female (96.9%), compared with 6 male bearers (3.1%). 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 Bailei?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Bailei is Black at 44.2%. The next largest groups are White (43.2%) and Two or More Races (5.0%). 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 Bailei most often in the Census?
Black is the largest reported group for people named Bailei in the 2020 Census, accounting for 44.2% (88 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 Bailei in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Bailei a female name?
Yes, 100.0% of people registered as Bailei 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 Bailei still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Bailei 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 Bailei 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 many Americans are named Bailei?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.